The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun
by Phoenix Down1
Summary: --Volume I of the Sun series--
1. Five Years Have Passed...

"The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun"  
  
A piece of prose by   
  
"The phoenix is down," Phoenix Down.  
  
"Chaos is a friend of mine." (Bob Dylan)  
  
  
  
  
  
  
It was a lazy... lazy day.  
Not that anyone was complaining.  
The lazier, the better.  
...  
  
Who would argue that?  
  
Cloud sighed.  
It was hot, too.  
Lazy and hot.  
  
He loved Costa del Sol.  
  
His skin was no longer pasty and pale; it was now a crispy, healthy, tan.  
  
He has given next to no thought about the events five years ago that lead him to early retirement, fame, and many, many relaxing days underneath weeks of perfect weather.  
  
He sucked on a chilled bottle of hard lemonade.  
  
Sigh.  
  
Hot. Just the way he liked it.  
  
Lazy, and hot.  
  
  
  
~  
  
  
"Oh, I'm setting my watch... alright? Ok. GO!"  
  
The two children set the turtles down.  
They sat there.  
  
The two children began to scream and holler.  
Tifa laughed.  
It had been five years since the incident with the meter. That's all it was to her- and that's what she called it. "The Incident."   
It brought her a little money, and a little press.  
After it all happened, she didn't even consider going back to Midgar.  
She never wanted to work in a bar again.  
  
So moved back to her hometown, and currently works in a daycare center.  
She doesn't want to work there forever, though.  
She considered going back to school- but Shin-Ra runs most of the good Universities- and their future is still unstable.  
  
  
  
~  
  
  
The world's economy would collapse if Shin-Ra went under. No one wanted that to happen, exactly. They just opted for things to be ran differently. After, "The Incident," many scandals came to surface.   
After Rufus died, nearly his whole staff was replaced.  
Scarlet was said to have been sleeping with Hidegger.  
(Tifa found THAT especially funny.) Palmer was embezzling money out of the non existent "Space Program".   
Reeve, AKA Cait Sith, was promoted, and became head of the new, "Shin-Ra Toy Department."  
The Office of the Turks was disbanded on new found morality issues.  
(Only rumors follow of what is left of them. Tseng is especially a legend- saying he- in fact- wasn't at all dead. He was supposedly seen at a local Indian casino with Elvis and a space alien. They played poker together.)  
Hojo was arrested for the trial and case of Sephiroth. Human experimentations had recently became illegal after "The Incident," as so creating a new Sephiroth would be impossible.   
He was set out on death row. He was found guilty for over two dozen accounts of "inhumane human experimentations." The date for his death is ironically October 13th.  
  
~  
  
Barret wanted a descent life for his adopted daughter, Marlene.  
He bought a house in Kalm with the money that was given and left over from "The Incident." He, like Tifa, wanted to get away from the slums of Midgar.  
"It ain't no descent place to be raisin' a kid."  
It was important to him that she had better education opportunities than he had as a boy.  
He and Tifa are closer than ever.  
Phone calls, letters, and visits are quite commonplace.  
Marlene- once- accidentally called her, "mom." Though, she had always called her, "Aunt Tifa."   
Tifa only wants to be friends.  
  
Friendship is too important to her. Although, Barret once slipped up and nearly told her how he felt about her on a cool Sunday night at Kalm. Marlene was in bed, and the moon was full.  
They were sitting on his front porch, and drinking beer and wine coolers. Barret though that he must have had one too many.  
  
~  
  
Cid wonders what happened to Vincent. Cid felt that out of all the bonds he had with everyone that he traveled with- theirs was the greatest. A rapport. An unspoken respect.  
And now, he was gone.  
"The Incident" changed him. Not completely, because in his book he was the same ol' Cid- but he no longer yelled in anger.   
He outwardly respected Sheila.   
He listened to her- and everyone- when they spoke.  
(And he didn't yell or call them stupid when he disagreed with them.)  
Life seemed too important now. He worked, studied, fixed, and built aircrafts in his backyard. He bought the Highwind and kept it in his backyard as his new prized possession.  
He thought about building the first small airport in the world right near Rocket Town- if he could ever get the land and zoning rights to clear.  
  
He even announced that he and Sheila were officially dating.  
Cid only kept distant relations with everyone he met from, "The Incident."  
He ignored the press that often came by. The media found his dreams in building an small time airport intriguing news.  
  
~  
  
Red 13 went back to using his original name. He became a chief at Cosmo Canyon. His grandfather had died a year previous, and never got to visit his becoming a chief ceremony in person.  
Nanaki knew he was there in spirit.  
  
~  
  
Yuffie spent only a few months in Wutai after "The Incident"- only, she never called it that.  
She and her father broke into a huge argument after she returned home, and she left again to search for materia.  
One wonders if her search for materia is merely a cloaked version of her searching for her soul.  
  
Yuffie is of many secrets, and of many fronts.   
She would never admit to anything.  
She would laugh.  
And act immature.  
And you would go on your way dismissing her-- without your materia.  
  
  
~  
  
There were many rumors spread about Vincent.  
A week after "The Incident," he appeared on the Conan O'Brian show.  
Conan cracked a joke about his mysterious demure.  
Conan asked if he was single.  
Vincent didn't finish the interview.  
He walked off the set, and was never seen nor heard from again.  
There have been ballads written about him by lonely women.  
They find him tall, dark, and "fucking handsome!"  
There was a speculated rumor about him in the movie industry.  
  
"I see it like... like a 'Frankenstein,' meets 'Dr. Jackal and Mr. Hyde,' film, only- ONLY with more special effects and... uh... let's say that the uh- Lucrecia character is- uh... has bi-sexual tendencies, ok?"  
  
The film was never made. Nearly everyone forgot that Vincent Valentine was one of the heroes that saved the Planet on that fateful day five years ago.  
He slept underneath the Shin-Ra mansion for many... many years.  
Perhaps forever.   
  
~  
  
Cloud turned over. The sun was starting to set, and all the ice in his drink had melted- watering down the alcohol.  
He removed his sun glasses.  
People were starting to go home.  
  
He sighed, stood slowly, and stretched.  
His back made a brittle noise as it cracked.  
He picked up his towel, and his plastic beach chair, and went home to his villa in bare feet.  
  
For a brief, flashing moment, Cloud Strife looked around... and felt lonely. 


	2. Smile Like the Cheshire Cat!

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
By:  
  
Ph-Ph-Ph- Phoeeeeenix Dooooown.  
  
Shin-Ra has not had a president in nearly five years. Every decision made in the company has been made slowly, and carefully, and most of all, inefficiently.  
That is why the final decision that was made, was the decision of electing a new president.  
  
Yes. Shin-Ra is a strange and unique company in many ways. It is also crucial that it remains healthy for the world's economy. This decision was very, very necessary.   
  
Cloud received 'fan' letter upon 'fan' letter begging him, prodding him, threatening him, and even bribing him to run for president.  
He did not reply to any of them, and after a while, lost interest in reading them. He did not intend to become an executive businessman.   
  
Tifa was skeptical that Shin-Ra would survive all these changes at all. Although she knew, that Shin-Ra was a crucial part of her everyday existence, a part of her- a raging/ fiery,   
Anarchist inside of her- whished that the company would crash and burn.   
  
Barret thought little of the election. He simply hoped that whomever was elected- was a decent man or woman. He would hate to have to do everything all over again.  
He simply hoped for the future of his ten year old daughter.  
  
Cid followed the election. He thought the political campaign was fascinating. He swore that he would vote for the candidate that opted for a new Space Program.   
  
Nanaki's opinion was much like Barret's- he worried that another evil would come to office, and that their efforts were in vain. However, he crossed his fingers, (or paws- as it were,) and tried to keep an optimistic view on humanity.  
  
Yuffie simply did not care.  
  
Reeve was actively working behind the scenes on the political front. There were two major candidates: a tall, dark, experienced, and round woman by the name of Natasha Kwame-Kaja, and a young, charismatic politician named Dante Julius.   
Older and more knowledgeable folk would vote for Natasha.  
But- unfortunately, neither of those categories are the general public.  
  
Cid couldn't trust Julius, "as far as he could throw him."  
  
"Sheila, you mind bringin' me some tea?" Cid asked as he reclined in his smelly, old, taped up and comfortable green chair.  
"Sure. Suger in it today?"  
"Nah. That @#%$ rots your teeth, you know."  
"I know." Sheila replied as she dutifully headed into the kitchen.  
Cid flipped on the TV, and snarled into the fuzzy, flat face of Dante's toothy white smile.  
  
"I really just don't trust the guy, you know? Look at him. I mean, LOOK at that smile, he grins like a #$^% snake!"  
"I..I know. I don't like him much, either. But he... he sure is good looking..." Sheila muttered as she walked back into the living room with two cups of tea and a tray.  
Cid muttered something dark under his breath before he slowly agreed.  
"Sort of reminds me of Johnny." He sighed, calming himself as he gently took his tea.  
"Thanks... sweet-hart." He sipped his tea as he stared into the television set.  
Sheila's grin was wide and warm. She loved the new Cid. Then, she turned to glance at Dante's gleaming-promising- boy wonder- smile.  
The smile that begged to be loved. It begged for votes and opinions.   
  
"I don't think he's like Johnny. Not really. Johnny is- uh- more honest."  
  
"SHHHH...! I need t' hear this! They're sayin' something about the Space Program!"  
Cid hissed and turned it up.  
"Sorry..." Sheila muttered, and dropped her head.  
"S'ok. uh, sorry fur yellin." Cid snapped a smile at her, and then turned to the TV.  
  
"And I WILL restore the Space Program. We, as a people, seek knowledge- and DESERVE to KNOW knowledge of places outside our solar system. I, unlike my fellow, RESPECTABLE candidate, Ms. Natasha, am FOR the new Space Program, here at the Shin-Ra Company."  
  
"$#^$#%!!!!! $#^#^%$#!!!!!!!!!" Cid stood up, tossed his tea to the floor, and screeched.  
His teacup broke, splattering the brown liquid all over the carpet. Cid's arms flew up in rage, and his face became contorted and red.  
  
"$^%$##!!!! I HAVE to vote for that?!?!??!? Why can't SHE be for the Space Program!?"  
"Sweetie, calm down! You will upset the neighbors!" Sheila yelled as she picked up the pieces of teacup from the floor.  
"#$%@ neighbors! I don't care! That stupid kid might win the election! Don't you get it! I HAVE to vote for him!!! UHG!!"   
  
Sheila sighed, and dumped the pieces into the trash. She found a rag, and began cleaning up the mess on the floor.  
Cid saw her working, then stopped his yelling and stopped kicking the footstool around the house, and began to only curse under his breath.  
He then began to help Sheila clean up his angry mess. 


	3. We Don't Want No Stinkin' Vampires!

"The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun."  
  
A piece of prose by   
  
Simply, Phoenix Down.  
  
This chapter is made just for Yuffie143  
  
"When I go up through the mowing field, the headless aftermath, smooth laid like thatch with heavy dew, half closes the garden path." (Robert Frost, 'A Late Walk.')  
  
Dante Julius was a brilliant politician. He was also a genius business and sales man. In fact, there was very little he could do.  
He was a writer, a singer, philosopher, and a speaker...  
Most of all, and this is what made him such a believable politician- he was an actor.  
Julius sat alone at his desk agonizing over his next speech. He insisted on writing it himself.  
"...And we follow... no, I don't want to use the word, 'follow,' and we... continue on? Like... and we- let's see how this sounds... 'We once followed Sephiroth like lemmings, or rats, running into the sun... but now we are ... now we are... independent- able to think on our own- and it is your CHOICE to vote for me...' That sounds good!" Dante glances up into the mirror that sits near his desk; his own face enamored him. He had perfect teeth, a perfect smile, perfect hair, and who could argue the beauty of his own eyes?  
With a face like that- he thought to himself- he could definitely win more votes than his opponent.   
Natasha Kwame-Kaja... even her NAME couldn't win votes- it was too ethnic.  
  
Dante glanced down at his paper again. Sometimes he became too distracted by his own gorgeous face.  
  
Pleased with his own words, Dante Julius practices for tomorrow's speech.  
  
~  
  
Tifa looked around. She had the feeling that she forgot something. Something important, like deodorant, or a toothbrush, or underwear. But she knew that she had all those things with her.  
Tifa looked over her shoulder, and glanced into the mirror before she went. She had made this journey so many times; normally she was confident. Then, why is it that she feels as if she forgot something? ... Doesn't matter. If she did, Barret would supply her with whatever it is. Besides, she says to herself, it isn't as if she is camping. It is just Barret's house.   
She goes there nearly every weekend, now.  
  
~  
  
Cid sighed. Sheila is outside. It is a nice, nice day out.   
Cid didn't feel like getting up; he has those days.  
He doesn't drink anymore; he gave it up for her. Sometimes he feels like he gives up A LOT for her. But it is worth it.   
One thing like has taught him- love is worth anything.  
He raises his head a little off the pillow, and reaches for the photographs near the bed.   
There were photos of him in his air force days in his uniform. He was thinner then- not that he is fat now. Pictures of his long lost friends that were gun downed in the war. He remembered when he and Ivan went to see his first play, "Loveless."  
Photos of his son, Johnny... Just where was that little bastard anyway?  
  
~  
  
  
Cloud sat in his villa. It WAS a nice day out. However, it wasn't a beach day; some days just aren't good beach days for some reason. Besides, his tan was dark enough- he didn't want to over due it.   
The phone was nearby, and it was dormant.  
Sometimes, it's just too quiet when you live alone.  
He stared at the telephone.  
He had a feeling that it would ring any minute.  
Like... right... NOW.  
  
It didn't. It was silent.  
  
How about... NOW.  
  
The phone sat there, staring back at him.  
  
He hated playing games with the phone- it never played back.  
Maybe he should just call someone.  
But... who?  
Vincent and Yuffie were unreachable- he hadn't talked to them in a LONG while... but just... how WERE they doing?  
  
He hadn't spoken to Tifa in over a month... frankly, he was a little afraid too.   
Perhaps... jealous. She spends a lot of time with Barret.  
Cid is normally busy with his own things... and he and Nanaki never got along perfectly. He wasn't someone you could sit back and have a drink with.  
  
He had just a few friends here, but no one he could really talk to.  
Cloud sighed, and looked away from the phone- another friend he didn't get along with.  
Maybe he should just call Tifa- she was the closest thing to a good friend.  
  
Cloud picked up the phone, and dialed the numbers he long ago memorized.  
It rang. And Rang. And rang.  
No one home.  
Bet she is with Barret.  
Damnit.  
  
~  
  
Vincent lay silent.  
He was awake.  
He supposed that it was day outside- since he was awake.  
No idea how long it has been.  
It seems like centuries since he last rose.  
...Nightmares have been turning into dreams since Hojo died.  
Dreams. How strange it is to dream again...   
  
"Hello...? Hellllooooooooooooo?"  
  
Was that - someone's voice?  
It is a woman's voice... familiar... perhaps he is dreaming again...  
  
"Viiiiiiinnncent? Where IS that key?! Did you lock yourself in again?"  
  
He KNEW that obnoxious voice. Just what is she doing here if it isn't a dream...? It isn't a dream, surely, he IS awake...  
He wanted to be left alone... that was why he CAME back here in the first place...  
  
"Is anybody HOME!?"  
  
He wanted to yell through his coffin, "Go away!"- But decided against it. It would give his position away.  
  
There was pounding on the door, then, a clicking of a key.  
Footsteps... leading... right up to...  
  
"Vinny? Ha! Found you're... creepy... SMELLY coffin... GOD! Why can't you hide like normal people!?"  
She flipped off the unlocked lid.  
  
Vincent blinked. The light stabbed his eyes.  
  
"What... are you doing here... Yuffie...?" Vincent rubbed his face. The blurry, weather worn young face was unquestionable.  
He couldn't see well. It would take a while to adjust.  
  
He sat up carefully.  
  
"Wanted to see you, that's all. Is that a SIN?" She giggled.  
"I have no Materia. You must want something. You would only come to see me if you WANTED something."  
He turned to her. She sat on the floor near a pile of human remains.  
  
"N-no. Just your company." She replied as she crossed her legs.  
"Well, quite frankly, I'm honored... but also suspicious. And, quite honestly, I don't want YOUR company."  
  
She looked up with an offended, sour look. "THAT'S a little RUDE! I came here all this way and-"  
  
"You've... aged." He cut her off and slowly began to rise, dangling his thin legs out of the side of his coffin.  
  
"So've you!" She snapped, still upset. She crossed her arms.  
"Now. I don't want to dance around the subject. Why. Are. You. Here?"  
  
  
  
She didn't answer. She simply stared at the wall with a disgusted expression plastered on her face. 


	4. We The People...

"The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun."  
  
A piece of prose by   
  
The Flighty Phoenix Down.  
  
Beautiful nights are like ill lit dreams.  
Cool air sighed and brushed up against the lantern faces of the people passing by.  
Blue shades and violet hues flickered against the golden streetlights. Softly the shadows play in the ally ways and sharp street corners. The gentle blue cobble stone roads all twisted and played underneath the feet of Kalm's town folk as they walked by.  
Tifa smiled and sipped her lemonade. Marlene was inside the house reading. Barret sat beside Tifa, trying not to hold her hand as they sat on his front porch.  
"Daddy?! Can you come here a minute?!" Marlene's deepening voice sounded shrill as she screamed from the inside.  
"In a minute, sweetie! What is it, anyway?!" Barret yelled back through the screen door with a sprig of agitation in his gruff voice.   
"I can't find the caaaan oooopeneeerr!"  
"Is right there in the pantry draaaawer!"   
"No! It's not!"  
Tifa giggled.  
Barret grunted and rose from the wooden front porch swing.  
He flashed a grin at Tifa as he left.  
  
Tifa lightly chuckled and felt a rush of blood to her cheeks as she heard Barret's dusty voice from inside.  
"Thought you said you were gunna read? What d' ya need the can opener for?"  
"I wanted some soup. Is that a crime, daddy?  
"No. Lemme help ya, here. Ok? See! There it is! Right where I said it was!"  
  
There was a sprinkling of laughter from the inside. Tifa glanced down to her bare feet and watched her toes wiggle like pale, stubby snakes against the flaky wooden porch.  
She looked up again, and watched a young couple holding hands and talking closely as they walked by.  
For a flashing moment, she thought about her blonde Cloud. Just how long has it been since they last talked... seriously... talked?  
Then, she listened to the hushed bass voice of Barret intertwine with the light, chipper voice of Marlene from the inside house.  
  
She felt torn.  
  
~  
  
"Stop acting so upset. I know it is just a put on. It bothers me. Just tell me why you came all the way down here. There has to be a reason."   
Vincent slowly slid out of the coffin, and went to light a torch to illuminate the musky, dank, cave.  
The walls were sweaty and cold; the shadows flickered and burnt away as a dim pale torch illuminated on the wall. He dropped the match, and let it suffocate itself out.  
  
"Well... Honestly... I..." Yuffie looked up. She sat against the far wall beside the darkness and ancient lost bones.  
  
"I MISS everyone, Vincent. I really, really do. I came here to see you first, because you were the closest to where I was."  
  
Vincent paused, and looked away from her large, sincere eyes that reflected a slice of light from the torch.  
  
"I see." He said finally. His whispery, course voice bounced gently in an echo.  
  
"So, will you come with me?" She asked, finally.  
He studied her a moment. Still, there was a nagging in his chest that she had some sort of mistrustful, ulterior motive.  
He couldn't quite put his finger on it.  
Vincent almost blurted out a flat, 'No,' but he stopped himself.  
"Yuffie, I'm very attached to this place. THIS is where I belong. I... shouldn't go out there..." He gestured to the sad, dark door. "THIS is my punishment. THIS is where I feel safe..."  
"Haven't you punished yourself ENOUGH! I mean, COME ON! Get real, Vincent, you know that they are tearing this place DOWN!" Yuffie snapped coldly. A weak, fox like smile played on her lips. She twisted her arm brace as she spoke, still sitting in the freezing pools of shadows away from the torchlight.  
  
Vincent turned around.  
"They... What?"  
"They are tearing this ol' shack down. Poof! Bam! No more! Bye-bye old crappy Shin-Ra mansion...!"  
"But they... this is private property! My father, my father whom worked for Shin-Ra... a Turk...... he owns this place..."  
"Isn't he dead?" She sneered.  
  
As Vincent turned to face Yuffie, his cape flickered around his shoulders and his eyes turned to a gravestone, "So what! They CAN'T tare this place DOWN! It is a historical building!"  
  
"Try watchin' the news, Vince. You need to get out more. The new- well- soon-to-be-president of Shin-Ra says he wants to tare this place down from top to bottom. It would cost too much to restore. It's one of his plans. That. And the new Space Program..." Yuffie said with an amused, singsong voice. She pretended as she spoke that she was doing her nails.  
  
"NO! They can't!" Vincent growled. Yuffie's attention shot up as she heard the familiar, frightening, thundering roar in the back of Vincent's throat. She knew that if he became TOO upset... that he had trouble controlling his own humanity...  
"Vinnie... VINNIE! Calm down! Your gunna..." Yuffie stood, and brushed the greasy dirt off from her legs.  
  
Vincent stood near the flickering, weak torch. His breath was short and quick, and his teeth were jagged and sharp, like wicked fangs.  
He had his face turned against the wall.  
  
Yuffie noticed that his clothes smelt like darkness and blood. His dead red eyes rose, and he tried to control his breathing and emotions.  
"S..S..S.. sorry..." He hissed as he composed himself. A fake smile crossed his lips.  
Yuffie's eyes were wide.   
She backed away from him.  
  
~  
  
"HEY! Sheila! Check this $#@$% out! They are doin' that-uh- those debates now!"   
"Oh? Really? Who is speaking?" Sheila yelled back from the kitchen. She turned off the hot water.  
"That %$#%$ kid, Dante, or somethin'! Come! Come on and take a look at this! Here! I'll turn it up!"  
Cid sat up in his filthy, favorite green chair, and turned up the volume on the television.   
Sheila came out from the kitchen with dishwater hands.  
  
They both paused and listened to the flat, fuzzy voices and dirty, pale TV images.  
  
"My opponent... Miss Kwame-Kaja, does NOT want renewal of Shin-Ra. She just wants the continuation of Shin-Ra, NOT a renewal, a change, from the old ways!  
I am for change. I WILL NOT repeat mistakes. I WILL work for... every... single... one of you!!"   
Dante Julius' face was lit up by a million flicking flashes of white camera light.  
Then, they switched to the rounder, older, darker face of his opponent standing in front of a microphone.  
Cid cheered.  
"What Mr. Julius says is impossible. It is all LIES. I trust, in fact, I know, that you people are more intelligent, and are not gullible. It is impossible, and unrealistic to just snap your fingers and expect everything to change in the Company immediately. There is no such thing as immediate gratification. Change in Shin-Ra, and the way it is run, will come, just slowly and carefully if it is done properly. I DO promise change. But it will take time..."  
"Ms. Natasha Kwame-Kaja DOESN'T WANT things to CHANGE!" Julius interrupted her.  
  
"BAH! You %$%$# kid! Shaddup! And let the lady TALK for Chrissakes!" Cid hurled a wad of paper at the TV screen.  
  
"If you elect me to be your next president of Shin-Ra, I promise you CHANGE! Change for the people. We will MAKE Shin-Ra work for YOU!" Natasha said with a strong voice and slight hand gestures.  
  
Then, the camera flickered to Dante.  
His blue eyes were bright, and his teeth were in a crescent shaped grin.   
He raised his arms, and with a voice that was compelling and dramatic, he spoke,  
  
"My... People! My, wonderful friends, my enemies, and my allies! I AM! I am your next president! I AM your leader and together... and only together... will WE BE GREAT!"  
  
The crowed suddenly hushed. Everyone, including Natasha, looked at him- and under his powerful voice, they all felt very... very small.  
Then, the mass broke into a crowd, crying, wave-crashing cheer.  
  
Streamers, trash, and voices were all thrown around. They wanted Dante.  
  
Dante Julius saw the people go wild for him. He grimaced like a serpent behind the TV screen. 


	5. Don't Trust Men in Cowboy Hats

"The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun."  
  
A piece of prose by   
  
  
The seriously misconstrued Phoenix Down  
  
*Just a quick note from the beloved Phoenix Down- addressing the review page for this story:  
  
Very perceptive, Yuffie143! I did use the name, "Julius," to allude to Julius Caesar! And yes, twistedly, the red head from Midgar- Johnny- is Cid's son- in my sick and wicked world. I sort of ah... alluded to my Vincent Valentine story about the mansion thing. In the story, Vincent's father was a Turk, and owned the Shin-Ra mansion- and let it go to shit. You wouldn't have known that unless you read the story. (I sort of have a thing for Vincent Valentine.) Go ahead and use any idea of mine that you want. I don't care. And thanks, Yuffie, for the compliments on my poe-et-try that I use in my writing.   
  
For the sake of all cheese, and only for that reason, I continue with the story.  
  
The Headless AfTeRmAtH and Other Rats in the SuN.  
  
"And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats. None so well as I; for he who lives more than one, more deaths then one must die." (Oscar Wilde [1854-1900], playwright.)  
  
"Don't... Don't get the wrong idea, though."   
"I'm not. But don't go bezerk on me or anything."  
"I can't promise you that." Vincent spoke as he leaned against the wall catching his breath- for a moment he did not feel at all human- he felt like a chaotic beast.  
"Then, your coming with me?" Yuffie asked hopefully.  
"Only to stop them from destroying my mansion."  
"Will you help me find Cloud and all of them?"  
"I still don't understand your motivation." Vincent caught his breath, and stood strait. Yuffie noticed that he smelt a little like decay and cold winter time.  
He took the torch, and slowly began to walk out into the cavern basement of the mansion.  
She followed him in silence; together they walked out into the daylight.  
  
~  
  
Tifa watched the sizzling, the hissing, and the strips of bacon contort and write under the heat of the frying pan.   
She still was getting over the weirdest night of her life.  
The things that Barret said to her- will their friendship ever be the same?  
Things were curling up and spilling out like fat in a frying pan.  
  
She heard the sounds of Marlene waking up; she had to go to school this morning.  
  
Tifa drained the grease from the pan, and laid out the strips of bacon upon a paper towel. The toast was almost done toasting. It would pop soon.  
She felt like she was going to pop, too.  
How could Barret SAY that he lo-  
  
"Hey, uh, aunt Tifa. Smells good..." Marlene came down, rubbing the sleep and morning from her ten year old eyes.  
"Hey, kiddo. Want some bacon?"  
"Sure." She grunted as she sat down. The wooden chair squeaked as it slid against the kitchen floor.  
  
~  
  
Reeve knocked on the door. He KNEW that he was in...  
"Dante, open the door, I have to talk to you about something!"   
There was a scrambling, and a thud.  
Then, a pause.  
The door flung open. The smell of sex permeated from the crack in the hotel room door. Dante was in his boxers and a t-shirt. His blonde, bleached hair that was normally plastered and smoothed back was in a complete disarray. Upon seeing him, Reeve took a step back, adjusted his tie, and cleared his throat.  
"Hm. Yes. Well. Sorry to disturb you. But it is something about one of your campaign policies that I am having a problem with."  
"Better make this quick. I don't see why this can't wait for later. I'm ENTERTAINING, Reeve. Something I think you should try to do more often."  
"It's the Shin-Ra mansion." Reeve said finally.   
Dante turned around, and lit a cigarette.  
"What about it?" He blew a mouthful of smoke into Reeve's face.  
"Don't tare it down if your elected. And I'm betting you are..."  
  
"DANTE! sweetie... who's that at the door...?"  
  
Julius paused, and glanced back, then turned to Reeve again.  
"Why not? You know what else I could tare down if I were elected? Huh? The Shin-Ra Toy Department. Yeah. That's right. Bugger off, Reeve, I'm busy."  
"But... but..." Reeve backed away as the door slammed in his face.  
  
"It isn't JUST that... You can't do what I think you are planning to do. It's not just the mansion... Dante." Reeve spoke out loud to himself as he walked away.  
  
~  
  
"So, whose winning?"   
"No one, yet."  
"$#%$ What do you mean, 'no one?'"  
"The election hasn't technically started. It will in a few minutes, sweetie."  
Cid cursed under his breath.  
"I KNOW that #$@%$ kid is going to win."  
Sheila passed him a compassionately, worried look.  
"Who did you vote for?" She asked as she kneeled down in front of the television, and turned up the volume.  
"...............That kid." Cid replied as he walked into the kitchen to make some tea.  
"Why?" Sheila asked with a amused voice.  
"Because he's for the Space Program. SHE isn't. For some $%$#^ stupid reason. I WOULD have voted for HER you know."  
"I know." Sheila replied as she followed him into the kitchen.  
  
~  
  
Dante was sweating.  
"You can do this, sir."  
"I..I know." Dante Julius said as he smoothed back his greasy, bleached hair.  
"Your going to WIN!" The woman he slept with the night before fixed his tie and kissed his forehead.   
He had no intention of marring her. She was a stripper.  
  
A huge man pushed the woman aside, and wrapped his heavy arm around Julius' shoulders. In-between the man's red, hairy, fingers rested a fat, stinky cigar.   
His voice sounded like sandpaper and dead maple leaves. He smelt of sweat, bourbon, and dry gin.  
He turned Dante's back to everyone as he whispered into his ear.  
"When your elected, your doin' the thing I told ya to do, aren't ya, boy?"  
Dante looked up into the man's face.  
  
The man was the size and shape of a huge, black bull. The man's face was puffed out, unshaven, fat and pink.  
His hair was weak, gray, and almost completely thinned into disappearance.  
He carried a felt cowboy hat in one hand, and a cigar in the other.  
  
Dante removed the man's heavy arm, and brushed his suit off.  
Then, he tightened his blood colored tie.  
  
"Don't you worry. I'll do it. Just give me a little more time. I still have yet to be elected."  
  
The man grunted like a hungry bear.   
"I just have a little problem..."  
"What's that?" The man asked as he stuffed the cigar in-between his yellow teeth.  
"I think someone is wise to me. His name is Reeve- he works for the Toy Department."  
"Why d' ya think he's wise t' yer?" The man glanced off suspiciously behind his back- making sure no one was listening.  
"He came to my room last night. He was complaining about the Shin-Ra mansion."  
"You think he knows why we are tearin' it down?"  
"I don't think it was because of Valentine. I think he knows about the extra-chaber-room."  
"SHHHH!!!" The man hissed with his crooked, ruined teeth. "Keep it down. We will talk about this later. Jus' get out der, and get elected!" The man put on his tan cowboy hat, and pushed Dante through the curtains, and onto the stage plat form.   
The crowd went wild. 


	6. Telephone Trials

"The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun."  
  
A piece of prose by   
  
The SeRiOuSlY self-proclaimed dEmEnTeD, and loving of long, long titles for   
  
Herself,  
  
Author of both, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"   
  
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth,"  
  
Phoenix Down.  
  
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing- to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. Not a select party." (John Keats 1795-1821. British poet.)  
  
  
  
"We once followed Sephiroth like lemmings, or rats, running into the sun... but now we are independent! - Able to think on our own- and it is your CHOICE to vote for me! It would be an honor, to carry out the traditions of human nature, and bring peace, beauty, art, high society, and most importantly of all, money and culture to our people! Education, redistribution of the wealth... We are not a monarchy! Shin-Ra is not your king, you... YOU people are your own kings!"  
  
As Dante Julius spoke, the crowd never once came to a low null. It was a constant, deep, thundering roar.  
Soon, his name blew into a chant. Thousands, perhaps a million of speckled faces stood before the plat-form stage that held a 14 foot, black-and-white photo of Julius' face. The man himself stood in front of that before a microphone.  
  
Natasha stood near him with her own photograph plastered largely behind her. Only, she was choking. She couldn't hear her own voice bellow out on the black speakers. The crowd chanting "Julius! Julius!" drowned her out.  
She knew it was over before it began.  
  
"WE are the people! WE are the people that will lead into our future! Our children, and our children's children, will carry out what is destined to become for our planet. Our... our planet is diseased, my friends..."  
Then, he paused theatrically.  
The crowed hushed.  
  
"Yes, yes, it's true..." His voice bounced and echoed. "Our planet... has a DESEASE..." He hesitated, and brought his arm up to wipe against his sweating forehead as he spoke and stared out into the billion seas of eyes.  
"And the decease is pollution. The people of Midgar are suffering. WE are suffering. Our children are suffering. And yes, it is because of Shin-Ra..."  
The people seemed to gasp. A politician was admitting to the problem!  
"But we will FIX it!"  
The crowed cheered again. Natasha Kwame-Kaja barely had a moment of speaking time.  
She glared at Julius every time his well-formed lips parted to open and speak.  
She didn't cover the microphone as she began to storm off the stage, uttering curses.  
  
~  
  
"DID you SEE THAT! THAT WAS SO $%%#$$%#@^%^%#$%^#^%$^%^&#$&@#~$!$#^%&&*(*)$*&^)*&%#$%$@#%^$&^%*^*()*&%*^#^%@^$#@%#!@$@!^#$&*^!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
"Cid, dear, calm down."  
  
"NO, That bastard KID! He didn't even let the lady TALK for chrissakes!"  
  
"It isn't your problem, sweetie. It will work itself out in the end."  
  
"No, no, it won't and you know it, Sheila. Your so damn $%%^#@ blind, that you don't even KNOW that he's gunna win."  
  
"I ... know he's going to win. I never said that he wasn't..."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I said, I know he's going to win. I was... just being idealistic."  
  
"Oh. Uh. Huh... sorry. Sorry for callin' you blind, Sheila."  
  
"I know. I know you didn't mean it."  
  
~  
  
Reeve tensed. He knew that Dante was going to win. He had to tell someone... SOMEONE had to stop Julius from winning...  
But there was no way.  
He had a lead in the vote by a 75% margin. Everything was legal, fair and square- Dante was winning.  
But... if he won... he would tare down the mansion, and have access to the secret passageway there.  
Someone had to know about it!  
  
But, whom could he trust...? Who already knew about it...?  
  
~  
  
"Yuffie, stop it."  
"SEE, SEE!" Yuffie leapt up and down pointing to the television screen.  
"Yes, I see, Yuffie. Stop making a spectacle of yourself." Vincent muttered.   
  
Yuffie and Vincent sat together at the bar inside of the INN of Nibleheim. Darkness and dusk was hovering over the red rooftops and jagged skyline of the small town. People, (for the most part, nearly everyone besides Yuffie, that is,) spoke in hushed tones and drank red wines and bourbon to slow themselves down to sleep.  
Vincent nursed his Merlot.  
Yuffie drank brown, fizzy, soda pop.  
  
"But, SEE, that's Dante Julius. HE'S the one who wants to tare down the Shin-Ra mansion."  
"YES, I SEE, Yuffie. That's ENOUGH."  
"We can make it to Rocket Town if we hurry."  
"We are not leaving tonight, for the last time, Yuffie. What has gotton into you? Why are you so hyper?!" Vincent turned and glared at the young woman.  
She smiled, and held up her caffinated, heavily sugared, drink.  
He shook his head, sighed, and felt like a moron for ordering it for her.  
  
  
~  
  
Tifa paused, and stared at the phone.  
'Just do it.' She said to herself. 'Just call him, before the thing with Barret gets too far. It... it will eat you alive if you don't... Just TELL him.'  
Tifa picked up the phone, and dialed Cloud.  
  
It rang once.  
  
Twice.  
  
Damnit, pickup.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Cloud...?"  
  
There was a long pause, and no one breathed.  
  
"Tifa? Hey, what's up?" He asked in a deadpan voice.  
  
"Nothing. I... I just... needed to tell you something." 


	7. Maybe We Should Have Brought a Map.

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
A piece of prose by your local Phoenix Down  
  
  
"Calm down, Jeeezus, calm down, kid. 'S allright. Yur gunna... get elected, all right."   
"I know." Dante sucked on his cigarette and exhaled slowly. "I know I will be."  
"Then, your gunna go through wit' what we talked about, .....right?" The large man in the cowboy hat eyed Julius while twirling whisky around in his small shot glass.  
"...Yes." Julius muttered as he lowered his eyes.  
"Good. Then, we ain't go no problem."  
"But. Uh, do you mind if I ask you something?" Julius looked up, and grinned like a feline.  
"Sure, go ahead." The huge, greasy man answered as he downed the shot glass of whiskey, and patted his pockets- in search of a cigar.   
"What IS down there, in the Shin-Ra basement, eh? Down in the chamber room you were telling me about." Dante asked as he smoothed back his bleach-blonde hair.  
The man paused as he found a fat, brown, sweet smelling cigar and pushed it between his thin lips.  
"Dat's my business, not yours, kid. We made a deal, I gave your yur money. I don' have t' tell ya nuthin about MY business. And..." The huge man in the cowboy hat slid out a silver pistol from the inside pocket of his white suit-coat.  
"If you keep asking me, kid, yur gunna find this reaaaally close t' yer heart." The fat man winked, and replaced it into his pocket.  
Julius glanced at it, flashed a sleek smile, and then returned to watching the TV screen where the polls were coming in.  
  
~  
  
"Wait a second..."  
"What?" Yuffie impatiently asked as she spun around.   
Vincent was lagging behind.  
"Nature calls. Will you... turn around, please?"   
Yuffie rolled her eyes and nodded, and only heard what sounded like water being poured onto the grass.  
  
A moment later, Vincent returned.  
"Feel better?"  
"Much." He replied.   
They walked a great distance in silent after that.  
  
"Are we... getting close to Rocket Town?" Yuffie stopped in her tracks and asked.  
The sun was closing down and settling on the horizon.  
The sky was shutting off as if the world were a great super market. Colors were putting things away onto shelves and the neon lights were shutting off.  
The 'open' sign was slowly getting flipped over as Yuffie wrapped her arms about her chest and felt the chill of night air being pushed around her.  
  
"I don't know, I thought YOU were the one paying attention." Vincent stopped, and glanced around. A thought came to him.  
"Are we... heading in the right direction? You know that I haven't been out of the basement in years. I don't know these parts of the land."  
  
"OH GREAT!" Yuffie exclaimed, throwing her arms down. "We're LOST!"  
"Shh. Calm down. Keep your voice low. We don't know what creatures are around here."  
"Great! Just GREAT! Just PEACHY! I'm lost with the most boring stick-in-the-mud in the universe!"  
"Hey. Hey! Calm down! Just wait here, and I'll go find some firewood." It was a sad excuse, but Vincent just wanted a moment away from her.   
Yuffie began to put, and fell onto her bottom. She sat upon a rock with her face leaning against her hand.  
She kicked the nearest pebble.  
  
  
Vincent wandered off into the woods, and with his good arm, he picked up small sticks and twigs.  
  
~  
  
"Sweetie! Ciiiid? Cid??" Sheila called as she stuck her head out the window.  
"What!" Cid barked back from his backyard. He stood, and wiped the oil from his hands. Beside him, in his backyard, was a small pink airplane. It's engine sputtered lightly, and it's silver propellers choked and heaved.  
  
"I was workin' on the Tiny Bronco, Sheila, this better be important!" He yelled over the noise as he slipped a cigarette into his mouth.   
"The polls are in, I just thought I'd tell you!"   
"#%$@ Jesus!!" Cid dropped his oil-covered rag onto the grass, and ran inside.  
  
He accidentally pushed Sheila out of the way as he dove in front of the TV screen.  
  
"Damnit! Damnit! %$^%#@ DAMNIT!"  
"What? What?" Sheila implored as she got back to her feet.  
"WHO won!?" She asked as she pushed her small silver glasses back up the bridge of her nose.  
  
"Guess..." Cid muttered.  
  
~  
  
"What, Tifa?"  
"I've been doing a ton of thinking. You know how I've been spending a lot of time with Barret?"  
"Yeah," Cloud answered coldly. "You don't even bother calling me anymore."  
  
"Well, I've realized something." Tifa paced back and forth as she spoke. The telephone cord tangled around her ankles.  
  
"What's that?" Cloud asked as he lay upon his bed in Costa del Sol. He bounced a tennis ball off the ceiling as he spoke- and caught it in mid-air.  
  
"That... that... I... uhm. Miss you. Really, really, really badly."  
  
"YOU WHAT?" Cloud sat up. The tennis ball came down and hit him on the head. "Ow. Damnit."  
  
"What?" Tifa asked.  
  
"Nothing." Cloud rubbed his head.  
  
"That I miss you, Cloud, and I... still have... those... feelings for you we talked about a long time ago. That's all. If you don't want to see me, or talk to me anymore, that's fine. I understand."  
  
"No. NO! Don't hang up, Tifa. I... uhm. Listen, can I call you back, later?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"When will you be home?"  
  
"I don't know. I'm still at Barret's."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Try next week sometime, ok?" As Tifa spoke, she did not see the tiny eyes that peered at her from behind the wall of the darkened living room. Barret blinked, and sighed silently. Slowly, he walked away. He heard too much.  
  
"Ok. Uh, ok. I'll talk to you, then, ok?" Cloud spoke cheerfully.  
  
"Uh, ok, Bye, Cloud."  
  
*Click.  
  
*Click.  
  
Tifa smiled, and poured herself some water. 


	8. Sometimes We Cry, Sometimes We Weep

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
A piece of prose brought to you by: Readers Like You!  
  
Phoenix Down  
  
  
"Help! Help! We're being repressed!" (The Socialist peasant in the movie, "Monty Python's search for the Holy Grail.")   
  
"What took you so long?" Yuffie rubbed her eyes and asked sleepily as Vincent returned. In his arms was a huge amount of firewood.  
His cape was slightly torn and his face was scratched and smeared with filth.  
"I ran into a few monsters. But it was not anything that I could not handle." He tossed the firewood to Yuffie's feet.  
"I collected, you build."  
"What?!" Yuffie exclaimed as she sat up. "I don't know how to build a fire with nothing!"  
"Don't you have any materia?"  
She paused, and looked to her cold feet.  
"...Don't you?" She asked quietly.  
"NO! I've been in a basement for five years!" He snarled back. He scowled as he sat down beside her.  
"Well... uhm. I guess we could rub two sticks together. Or clap rocks, you know?" She suggested as her face rose to meet his red eyes.  
"You do it. I collected firewood. Besides," He added as he clutched his metal claw. "I only have one GOOD hand."  
"Fine!" She dove down to the firewood, and took two presentable looking sticks. Harshly, she began rubbing them.  
  
Under the deep-set moonlight and chilly night breeze, Vincent watched her with a hidden amused expression.  
Every try she made, was in vain.  
"...Are you going to keep failing? I'm getting a bit cold, you know. And the night isn't getting any younger."  
She threw the sticks aside, and glared at him. "Then, why don't you start helping and stop complaining!!"  
He chuckled to himself.  
"I've figured it out. You came to see me because you were lonely. You really can't stand me, can you?"  
She didn't reply. Yuffie picked up to more sticks and began rubbing them together.  
"That's it, then. You came to find me because you were lonely. If someone were closer proximity to you, you would have sought them out."  
"............I can survive JUST FINE by mySELF, thank you very much."  
"Then, why can't you make fire?" Vincent picked up a twig and spoke as he traced the tip of it around his feet.  
"...I can- see!" As Yuffie talked, a spark flew up from her sticks and ignited the surrounding kindling.  
"Hmph. Took you long enough."  
"In your FACE, Tall-Dark-and-Scary!"   
"Whatever. Here, help me feed the flame. Don't smother it."  
  
Not a word went between them as they fed the tiny orange fire. It took nearly a half hour and several more stick rubbings before a healthy flame withstood the wind and darkness.  
Yuffie laid down several feet away from Vincent, and encompassed her head with her thin arms.  
Vincent sat upright with his arms wrapped about his stomach, and leaned against a large rock, trying his best to rest his eyes.  
"Vinnie?"  
"Don't call me that." Vincent responded coldly as he stared into the fire.  
Yuffie raised her head a little. "Don't be such a prat."  
  
Vincent retorted with silence.  
  
"Can I call you Vince, then?"  
"Fine." He subsided and slid downward as so only his head rested against the rock. His lengthy raven colored hair made spider web patterns upon the stone's surface.  
"Why are you... so... screwed up?"  
"Define 'screwed up?'"  
"Like..." She searched for words as her eyes searched the ground for nearby insects. "Like, your anti-social, and you dress weird, and you get those weird spaz-mo moments, and ... and like, like you never talk to anyone, or anything. And you have this thing with Hojo and Lucr-"  
  
He shot her an icy, bullet filled glare.  
  
"See, like- like moment's like THAT! Why don't you TALK to anyone like NORMAL people!? And WHY do you sleep in a COFFIN in the Shin-Ra's BASEMENT! It's really, really CREEPY."  
  
"Because. I. Want. To."  
Yuffie sat up. "That's not a good enough REASON!"  
Vincent sat up. "Why do you steal people's materia?"  
"Because it's at least USEFUL!" She screamed.  
  
They stared at each other. One could feel the ice dividing the great gapping space between them with a thin, cold line.  
  
"Your such a PRICK, Vincent!"  
"...And your... such a... brat, Yuffie."  
"OH! Look whose using name calling, now!"  
"I don't WANT to get a argument with you, Yuffie. You know, you haven't changed since "The Incident," you know? It has been five years, and you STILL act like an immature 16 year old."  
"And YOU don't know how to even HAVE fun!"  
Vincent replied with a grunt.  
Yuffie rolled her eyes into, what seemed like, the back of her head.  
  
"That's such a guy thing, you know that?! You're just like ever other guy! Your- your like- cold, and you grunt, and you hide your emotions to act all big, bad, and macho, and everything, and dramatic, but you know what!? You know what, Vincent, your NOT!"  
"Your entitled to your own opinion."  
  
She sat up on her knees, and her voice echoed off into the treetops.  
"Yeah, I am, and you know what MY opinion is of you-"  
  
She was cut off by a loud, rolling growl off in the black forest.  
"Hold me." Yuffie swallowed.  
  
~  
  
  
Reeve cursed. He dropped his eyes down, and stared at his well-polished shoes. 'Just HOW could these people TRUST a man like Dante Julius?' He thought to himself. 'He is a prick, and a snake. Dark days are coming to Midgar- and the rest of that world, for that matter, again.' Reeve shoved his cold hands deep into the crevasses of his pockets, and flipped up his leather jacket's collar.   
The cool cobble stone streets wandered into shadowed corners and filthy walls. Midgar was a dank city art night. 'Come to think of it,' Reeve thinks silently to himself, 'Midgar is a midnight city. It always seems dark out even on the brightest and crisp of days...' He lifted his face and looked up into the "sky" as he walked down Sector 2. It wasn't even a sky. It was truly a ceiling.   
A ceiling at Dante Julius now had complete control over.  
As Reeve continued his walk, a stench crawled under his nose. He glanced to his side, and saw a homeless woman smile up at him. He tossed a few gil that he had in his pocket to her, and continued on.   
Upon a park bench, and under the halo of sodium yellow streetlights, a couple of women were talking together.  
"I think that' he is kinda... you know, cute- for a president."  
"He isn't better looking than Rufus."  
"That doesn't really matter, uh, do you think that he will do a good job-"  
  
Reeve ignored them, and continued on. He thought to himself- that they had no idea what they were in for.  
  
"Reeve... oh, god, Reeve, is that- uh- you? I- I can't fucking believe it's really... really... you."  
As Reeve turned the corner, a weak voice came out from a black, oily ally way.   
Reeve stopped, and removed his hands from his jacket pockets.  
"Tseng!?"  
  
~  
  
Tifa walked from drawer to closet, collecting her things. Her lacy panties, her jeans and hair dryer. She sighed. She didn't want Barret to know that she was leaving his house early to see Cloud.  
All these years, she thought that she was in love with Cloud- never had he reciprocated the feelings back to her.  
Then Aeris came along- since she died- she and Cloud left so many things unsaid.  
  
At least- there were so many things she left unsaid to HIM.  
  
She was never jealous of Aeris, not really. She felt that she was happy that there was a woman in Cloud's life that was capable of making him happy. She was just sorry that it was not she.  
Then, Aeris died.  
  
What now? After, "The Incident," they just went their own ways. Barret and Tifa were still close friends- they had been for years. They were in AVALANCHE together. Why didn't she see that he was looking for someone to love- and someone to be a mother to Marlene?  
  
But... she had feeling for Cloud...  
  
What will come of this... will things change after she goes to Costa del Sol and TALK to him- really talk to him?  
  
How will Barret feel? She didn't want to loose her friendship over this...  
Is it- worth it?  
  
This could be true love!  
  
Maybe, maybe not. Maybe Cloud REALLY doesn't feel that way. But he sounded excited over the phone to hear from her. Maybe he just wanted to be friends again.  
  
Tifa sighed, and threw her t- shirt on the bed beside her suitcase. Then, the tossed herself on top of it, and felt herself cry.  
It was not a bitter weep, but a subtle cry.  
  
The silky white sunlight slipped through the window glass, and settled onto her skin. 


	9. Midgar and Mysteries

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
A Piece of Prose: being transmitted from my witless brain to your sore, computer eyes.  
  
Phoenix Down the Magnificent  
  
"It's not the way, that you say it, when you do those things to me,   
it's more the way that you mean it, when you tell me what you see, and when you stop and think about it, you won't believe it's true- that all the love you've been giving, has all been meant for you." (The Moody Blues- from the song, "Question," off the album, "This is the Moody Blues."  
  
"I can't believe I've fucking ran into you. You know? I've wanted a fucking HUGE   
piece of you since the temple. You know what HELL I've gone through? HUH!"   
Tseng shoved Reeve harshly. Tseng smelt of cheap wine and soiled rags, of unwashed skin and garbage dumps. He wore a battered green jacket that smelt of urine and sweat. Around his thin, pale jaw hung a five year old black beard battered in age and gray hair.  
"LAY OFF, Tseng!" Part of Reeve wanted to throw several pieces of gil at him and run- the other part of Reeve- the hero- wanted to grab his violently shaking, thin hands and scream some sense into him.  
"You wanna know what happened to me since the temple of the fucking Ancients, eh, Reeve?! Yeah, I BET you do! Your such a fucking HERO now. You know what you are!? Huh?? You're a double crossing ASSHOLE, Reeve! You, and your fucking HERO friends, including that bitch, Aeris, LEFT me to DIE back there! I was still alive, Reeve, when the temple collapsed, eh? YEAH I WAS!"  
"Get your hands off me, Tseng!"   
"You want to know how I escaped!?" Tseng let go of Reeve's shirt collar, and backed down. His eyes were bulging and bloodshot. His cheekbones were jagged and sharp. His hair was much, much longer than it used to be- but most of it was matted and filthy.  
"I CRAWLED OUT of the collapsing temple! I was BLEEDING! Fuck, there was... there was... so... much BLOOD." Tseng covered his face in his frail hands. "I laid in the forest for days. I... thought that I was going to DIE. And... I..." Tseng calmed himself slowly. Reeve stood and listened, trying not to gag on Tseng's smell.  
"I couldn't go back to Shin-Ra, Reeve. I was as good as a dead man. I- I had no place... to go. No one would fix my arm." Tseng's bright, pink eyes and black pupils swelled in tears. "My arm... sniff... still... doesn't work. The nerves are too badly damaged. Fuck, Reeve, I used to be a big shot like you. Sniff. And.. and look at you, you still work for the shit-hole. What a fucking asshole you are. Bastard. Fucking selfish bastard. You really are Satan, Reeve Sith. Then, the Turks were disbanded, and the only person who gave a SHIT about me in the past years and actually tried finding me was Elena."  
"How is she?" Reeve whispered. He didn't know what to say.  
  
"How the FUCK do you THINK she is?! The Turks was all she had, Shin-Ra was all she HAD! Shin-Ra was all the Turks ever had! We gave up or lives, and our families, to become TURKS. Fuck..." Tseng coughed. "I couldn't get a job with my arm and all. She's a waitress. Or a secretary, I don't know. She works. We went out for a while. Then, we broke up and stopped talking. She even took care of me."  
"How's Reno and Rude?"   
"Got a cigarette?"  
"No, I don't smoke." Reeve suddenly felt a wave of sympathy and guilt over him. Tseng wasn't a bad guy, not like the rest of the Turks. He always had a heart, and it left him cold and desolate as a homeless guy on the streets of lower Midgar.  
"Reno is fine. He always finds a way to... manage. Rude drinks himself stupid and works as a Taxi driver. Fucking bastard. He deserves every hardship he gets. Reno... he's just a kid, Reeve.... He's just a kid."  
  
Tseng began to walk back into the shadows of the ally way. Reeve followed him. "I can't believe I ran into you..." Tseng went on in a broken voice, "and the first thing I did WASN'T grabbing a stake knife and slitting your throat and cutting out every organ in your body and forced you to eat your own shit."  
"It wasn't my fault, Tseng." Reeve added weakly.  
"Then, why DIDN'T you go back for me, Reeve? I've wanted to ask you that for like, five or six fucking-"  
"There wasn't enough time, Tseng, ok, I'm sorry. If you want me to make it up for with money, that's fine. I got it."  
"Money won't give me back my arm." Tseng said sullenly as they reached the end of the ally way.  
"Sephiroth took that from you, NOT ME, Tseng."  
"I...I..." The anger melted from his pall, sick face. The gray and bruise colored bags under his eyes made his face seem like a sunken, bearded, sad, skull. "I know, Reeve. Listen, I got to tell you something." Tseng coughed. Past the shadows, and around the corner, the ally way opened up to a small, cold and dirty junk yard.  
There were dozens of homeless people milling about, gathered around a garbage fire, and talking softy.  
Some of them pushed bent grocery carts filled with tin cans and forgotten clothes. Others leaned against the brick wall that caged them in- simply resting.  
"See, you ass fucker," Tseng whispered to Reeve, "Because of you, I live here now, instead of my flat in Costa del Sol."   
He swallowed when a old and crumpled man turned, and let his eyes bore into Reeve's well kept face.  
He definitely felt out of place there.  
"Taste of reality, eh?"  
"What did you have to tell me?" Reeve asked as Tseng approached the others huddled around a flaming, rusted, trash can.  
"Oh. That. A bit of information that doesn't do me any good, but may do you some."  
"Yeah, so, what is it?"  
"It doesn't come free. Ass-wipe." Tseng began to warm his thin hands above the fire.  
  
Reeve waited, and shifted his weight under the heavy stares of the homeless folk- who- with their eyes- studied and hungered for his Italian suit and tiny cell phone.  
Tseng watched him like a writhing worm.  
"You... wanna know the price?" He grimaced like a fox as he stroked his furry beard.  
"Then take me in."  
"What?" Reeve took a step back into the gaping mouth of the ally way.  
"Yeah. Clean me up, give me money and a place to stay for a while. Fuck, look at me, Reeve, I'm a business man and a damn good one, you know what. I'm not staying in this shit-hole forever. I'm not like these guys."  
  
Some of the folk near him- eyed Tseng wearily. They were used to harsh, forked tongues flickering un-kind words near their proximity. They learned to never pay attention.  
Besides, Tseng would be the first of their kind to talk of, 'getting out of the life style.' One of them chuckled dirtily.  
  
"Fine." Reeve hissed. "But, tell me what your secret is, though, first."  
"Nope. Let me shower, first. I've almost forgot the feel of hot water." Tseng approached Reeve. Reeve nodded.  
Together, they left the ally way.  
  
~  
  
There was a electronic chime. "We will be reaching our- uh- destination of Costa del Sol in under three hours. If you would sit patiently, folks, and enjoy the scenery. And a reminder, there is uh- no smoking on this ride. Thanks uh- again for choosing the Shin-Ra mass transit system."  
  
Tifa sat back, and clutched her carry on. She sat beside the window- but nobody else.  
She un-zipped her brown backpack, and pulled out a photograph.  
It was of her, Barret, and Marlene when she was six.  
Barret had Marlene wrapped up in his tree-trunk arms.  
Tifa was leaning on Barret as if they had been married for years.  
  
But they hadn't; it was only a photograph.  
  
Then, she leaned her head against the window-glass, and looked up into the Clouds.  
  
~  
  
"VIIIIINNNNNCCCEEEE!!! PASS me a Hi-Potion!!!" Yuffie screeched.  
"I can HEAR you. Don't call me Vince." Vincent replied as he re-loaded his pistol and aimed it at the beast.  
The moment after he fired, (he braced himself for the kickback, the noise, and the smoke, as well as the green-blood and hiss of the monster,) he tossed Yuffie a Hi-Potion.  
Yuffie caught the potion, then dived into the beast with a mighty stroke of her bladed weapon.  
A bloody swipe.  
A high pitched yelp.  
  
The beast collapsed.  
And... it smelt immediately.  
  
Vincent un-loaded his gun, and safely put it into it's holster. He approached the huge, orange, bloody beast, and tapped it with his thin foot.  
"What the heck was it?" He asked as he starred down it's mangled, bulky body.  
It smelt of jasmine and sewers.  
  
"I donno. Cid in the morning?" Yuffie chuckled as she poked it with a stick.  
Vincent glared at her with flaming ice.   
"Don't make fun of him."  
"Why? Is he your boyfriend, or something?" She tossed the stick aside and began to walk away.  
"No!" Vincent bit at her with his voice. As he turned his back, the creatures dead flesh disintegrated into the grass with a slippery hiss and waving mist.  
  
"Look. Speaking of your boyfriend, I guess we were heading in the right direction all long. There is Rocket Town ahead." Yuffie pointed to the horizon with a scratched and dirty finger.  
  
"I'm... exhausted. I don't care how close we are, I'm not moving another foot."  
  
Yuffie wordlessly agreed. 


	10. Of Blood and Wine

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"  
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."  
  
By: The Inaudible Phoenix Down  
  
  
Tifa exited the train.  
On the wooden platform, she was eclipsed by a shadow of a passing by cloud over the sun.  
A swift, sincere smile lifted her cheeks as her tongue lubricated her lips.  
Cloud, out in the distance, waved to her.  
People passing by to-and-fro made him vanish for just a moment.  
  
Tifa dropped her bags as he headed toward her.   
He looked a little different than how she remembered him. His skin was a little tanner, his hair a little longer, his chin a little scruffier.  
But, he didn't look bad.  
  
Without hesitation, they embraced for a lingered moment. Cloud intertwined his arms around the whole of her body, savoring every moment their flesh touched.   
He wasn't exactly sure how he truly felt about her emotionally; but physically, she felt good- even her smell. He couldn't deny that.  
  
The hug seemed a little long- and after a moment felt over, she awkwardly pushed him away. "I missed you." She said quietly as she lifted her bags onto her round, bare shoulders.   
"Let me take those." Cloud Strife offered.   
His blue eyes were as bright as she remembered them. They reminded her of a shard of sea after a passed storm.  
She handed him her heavy, green bag with a broken strap.  
"Did you have trouble getting here? I bet your tiered." Cloud asked as they walked off the platform. Tifa noticed that they were one of the few people here.  
She wondered where everyone went.  
"Not really." She answered absently.  
  
The train station seemed unusually quiet and dark for a mid-afternoon.  
They walked out of the out-skirts of Costa del Sol, and into the mid-section of town where they caught a ride into down-town, and soon- to Cloud's villa.   
  
As the afternoon wore on, so did the heat. It was going to be another lazy, warm day.  
  
Cloud un-locked his front door, and together they walked in. His villa looked as though it survived a last minute cleaning session. It smelt of dirty clothes and lemon cleaning fluid.   
Tifa looked around as she put her bags down. The villa looked ill-lit and lonely.  
  
~  
  
Yuffie sighed silently as she knocked on Cid's front door.  
Vincent noticed that she looked a little dirty, exhausted, and above all- uneasy. She continuously shifted her weight, and clenched and unclenched her sweaty palms.   
"Don't worry," He whispered to her through his red collar. "He will remember you."  
  
She looked up at him. "That's sort of what I'm afraid of."  
"Why?"   
  
Before Yuffie could answer, Cid answered the knocking on his front door.  
Cigarette ash tumbled off the end of the orange tip and sprinkled his T-shirt.   
He glanced to Yuffie.  
The expression on his lips and behind his small eyes was one of annoyance and question.  
Then, his sharp, dark eyes darted to Vincent.  
  
His expression lightened, and his front door widened.  
  
"Vincent, hey, HEY, hi-ya, pal! How the %$#@!% are ya?! What brings ya to my humble abode? Didn't think I'd ever see the likes of YOU again! $%#@!! You- you guys been on a journey? You don't look so good! Damn!"  
  
Cid wrapped one arm around Vincent's neck, and with a man's shrug- hugged him. Vincent awkwardly received the gesture.   
Yuffie tapped her foot impatiently as Cid ignored her completely- they tolerated each other during "The Incident," but never, really, liked each other at all.  
  
Frankly, Yuffie was slightly intimidated by him.  
  
"Well, I can think of a ton of questions, why don't you two come in for some tea, and we will talk- catch up on ol' times, you know? SHIELA!"  
  
~  
  
Tseng looked around. Reeve's home reminded him of one of his own. He used to own three.  
Tseng lifted a ceramic cat off of Reeve's glass coffee table.  
"I've never understood you or liked you, Reeve. You, and your alter-ego. It's... fucked up. What normal person makes a stuffed cat and does things he can't do in person? I'll tell you. A person with identity issues does that. That's why I've never liked you. Your... just... too... strange."  
  
Reeve didn't reply to Tseng as he took a white towel out of the closet.   
  
"But, it's fitting that you would make a cat be your alter-ego. You're a pussy, Reeve." Tseng flashed a dirty grin as he replaced the ceramic cat down on the table.  
  
"The bathroom is down the hall. There should be razors and shaving cream under the sink. I also put one of my suits for you in there. Knock yourself out. Once your done, I want you to tell me what it was you wanted to tell me, then- leave."  
  
"Deal." Tseng said as he took the towel and headed towards the bathroom. All the while, he was smiling.  
  
As the bathroom door shut, a sudden wave of worry encompassed Reeve.  
He simply had, 'a very-bad-feeling-about-this.'  
  
Then, the water turned on in the bathroom.  
  
What could go wrong? It was only Tseng, and he could understand why he felt so bitter towards him. Maybe taking him in for a while, and cleaning him up would make up for all of that. Reeve even considered trying to find him a job in the Toy Department where he worked.  
But... wouldn't Tseng then resent him EVEN MORE if he did that?  
  
Maybe life on the street taught Tseng a thing or two in swallowing his pride. Maybe not.   
  
Reeve walked around his beautiful, white apartment in upper Midgar.  
Everything was tasteful in his home.  
He owned a large, black leather sofa, and a wide screen TV. Reeve owned white a dozen white lilies in a crystal vase on a mantle.  
  
He was proud of his apartment; but rarely, VERY rarely, did he have guests over.  
As a matter of fact, would this be the first time anyone ever came over?  
Reeve headed into the kitchen. He took out a bottle of red wine, and two crystal wine glasses, and he set them upon his table.  
The table was made of glass, and held a beautiful-tasteful- flowered centerpiece in the middle.  
The flowers were red.  
"Red as blood." Reeve smiled.  
  
The water turned off.  
  
Reeve headed back into the living room, and sat down. He tried picking up a book, then a magazine. He couldn't concentrate on the words.   
Nearly a half hour passed before the door opened letting steam pour out in sticky waves.  
Tseng stood before the bathroom mirror combing out his long, long locks of wet, black hair.  
The mirror in the bathroom was caked in steamy heat, except a small window where Tseng rubbed away a circle for his face.  
He looked like a thinner version of the Tseng Reeve remembered. The matted, five-year-old beard had vanished from his face, the rags were in the trash, his teeth was brushed, and his nails clipped.  
The suit he wore fitted him and his personality perfectly.  
Tseng's left arm hung uselessly at his side; the navy-blue sleeve of the suit jacket hung equally as limp.  
Reeve approached the bathroom, and asked politely- (as politely as he could have managed, anyway,)  
"Need help with the sleeve, I know your arm's..."  
Tseng turned, dropped the black comb, and looked at Reeve.  
Then, he nodded.  
Reeve helped him straiten out the jacket, and helped his nerve-damaged arm into the sleeve.  
  
They walked out of the bathroom, and into the kitchen. Reeve offered him a glass of wine.  
  
A moment passed as they sat at Reeve's kitchen table before they spoke.  
  
"So, what was it that you wanted, er- needed to, tell me?"  
"Tell me Reeve, what is the golden rule that the Turks live by?"  
"I don't know. I never really had anything to do with you guys."  
"It's something that the people of the streets live by, too. 'Keep Your Friend's Close and Your Enemies Closer.' THAT'S the golden rule that I've lived by nearly all my life."   
There was a silence as Tseng finished his wine.  
"So, what was it?" Reeve pressed further as he folded his hands upon the table.  
"I know what president Julius is looking for under the Shin-Ra mansion. It's been a secret at the Company for years. I'm surprised that you don't know."  
Tseng said as he smiled.  
"I know that there is something Top Secret down there. And it's not the lab. There was a reason why they never tore it down. I- I-just. Don't know what it is. I've never NEEDED to know."  
Tseng paused, and eyed the green bottle of wine.  
"The Turks know. And it isn't Valentine. But, I wouldn't be surprised if he knows all about it. There is something else down there. A room that you can only get to by tearing the place down." Tseng continued as he poured himself a mouthful. "My theory is that Julius is a smart guy, but not smart enough to keep himself from being manipulated. I've been following the election; I don't think he's the one who is calling the shots. I think that there is someone who is after what is down there." Tseng swallowed the mouthful of wine.   
"So, who is manipulating the president? What is down in the mansion?"  
  
Tseng stood, and took the green wine bottle in hand.  
Reeve looked up at him.  
A knife-like smile played upon Tseng's lips as he shattered the bottle on Reeve's table.  
Scarlet red wine and green glass snowflaked all over their clothes, and all over the table.  
  
It seemed to happen in slow motion.  
  
Tseng pushed the table aside; letting the two glasses and flower center-piece crash to the floor.  
  
Wine, like blood, seeped into the white carpeting and meandered slowly like thick rivers everywhere.  
  
Tseng grabbed Reeve by his shirt collar, and attacked him with the broken wine bottle.  
"Keep your friend's close, and your enemies closer," Tseng whispered into Reeve's bleeding ear. 


	11. Monster Madness

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"  
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."  
  
Written by: Phoenix Down and three hundred and forty seven monkeys chained to type-writers in a orange colored room.  
  
  
"Happiness is a warm gun." (John Lennon.)   
  
Dante always knew that he was a talented boy; he grew up a very talented man. If the streak of yearning for power didn't exist in him- he would have perused acting instead of politics.   
But, look at him.  
He perused politics, and won the gold metal. You couldn't DO any better than he did. There isn't a seat more powerful than his own. He IS the president of Shin-Ra, the king of the world.  
Dante twisted, turned, and swung his hips. He was also a beautiful dancer. He would have been the star of the screen of he wanted to act. He would have smoked the competition in anything he wanted to do.   
He danced in front of the huge window in his office.  
Eighteen years of tap.  
His body was graceful, beautiful, and only a hint of peppery jazz. He smiled with dead, bone, white teeth.  
There was a heavy knock on the polished door of his office.  
"Come." Dante Julius spun around on his heel as the man entered his office.  
  
It was the huge, sweaty man in the gray felt cowboy hat.  
  
"I need t' talk t' yer." The huge man spoke with a crusty voice. He dragged a rag over his red, fat face.  
"Then, talk." Dante said as he sat down behind his desk.  
"We need t' tare down the mansion, THIS WEEK, Julius. I'm done playin' games. We had a deal- and I paid you yer money."  
Please, patience, my old friend." Dante stood and faced the huge window of his office. It was once Rufus' office- until that one blew up but was shortly repaired.  
The fat man in the cowboy hat looked displeased.  
"No patience! I am DONE bein' patient! We tare dat buildin' down, NOW! We tare it down To-DAY, or I ring your skinny lil' neck with my BARE HANDS!"  
  
Dante turned around, and ran his pale fingers through his newly bleached hair.  
"Just tell me what is down there, and we will tare it down this very minute. I promise." Julius flashed the fat man a sleek, smooth, smile.  
  
The fat man grunted. He was not a stupid man by any means.  
"It ain't none of your business, kid. But, I see no harm in tellin' ya now. Now, dat there isn't anyone else listening. Fine. I'll tell ya- it don't matter anyway because I OWN what's down there. Two things. One, dat's where they moved the headless Jenova project after Sephiroth was killed, and two, they moved that down there because no one would have taken it because of what else is down der with it. Protectin' it."  
  
"Go on." Julius coaxed.  
  
"Monster's lair. Dat's where... they all... meet, sort to speak. Day meet down der, you know." The fat man's voice softened, and he lowered his rose colored face.  
  
"Monster's... meet down there?"  
  
"Sort of like a monster U.N. They hold meetin's. Smart monsters, though. Actually, dey not like monsters at all. They organize things. Plan them. Against us- dey have been down there much longer than we have been up here."  
  
"I see. Who else knows about this?" Dante asked interestedly. He placed his hands upon his hips.  
  
"Not many folk. Most think it's only a legend. Written in books by the Cetra. There are records." Replied the fat man. He removed his cowboy hat from his greasy, balding head.  
  
"And the monster's are holding Jenova now?"  
  
"Stupid kid." The fat man said as he placed a cigar into his mouth. "The monsters know what Jenova really is. She is a dead Cetra goddess. An ancient one. She's been around as long as they have. Dey respect her- worship her for what she really is. Monsters, in a way, are wiser dan us. I didn' think you'd understand. And, it's mine now, so, keep yer nose t' your own from now on." The fat man patted his sides for a lighter.  
  
Ideas were folding behind Dante's eyes and in his head. He slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out a golden lighter. He handed it to the fat man.  
"It's a fascinating story, anyway, I just don't know how much merit or truth it holds." Julius sat back down in his red leather chair behind his desk, and folded his legs together at the knee. "Fine, go ahead, use our bulldozers and equipment and knock down the mansion tomorrow."  
"TO-DAY." The fat man corrected him as he lit his cigar.  
  
Julius smiled like a serpent swallowing a white rat. He wasn't sure HOW yet- but he was certainly planning on manipulating the manipulator.  
Like the way a cat bites the fingers of the human that feeds it- or the way the fox out runs the hare.  
  
"Fine. Right, TO-DAY. We will tare it down today." Julius padded his words thickly.  
"You mean, I WILL tare it down today." The fat man corrected him with a pleased smile.   
Dante Julius nodded.  
He smiled exactly like a fox.  
  
~  
  
"Sorry the house is such a damn mess. We weren't expectin'..." Cid began. Vincent shook his head as Sheila returned with a tray full of tea. She set it gently upon the table.  
"Yes. It's been rare since we have entertained real people. The only folk that come around now-a-days are the media. They keep following Cid's battles in court with the landlords. He still wants to build a small airport here in Rocket Town." Sheila added as she sat down.   
Yuffie took her tea and filled it with sugar lumps.  
Vincent didn't touch any of the cups and saucers.  
"So, well, first question: Why are you two travelin' together, anyway?" Cid asked. He rested his foot upon the chair, and leaned in on his knee.  
He eyed them both suspiciously.   
Vincent looked to Yuffie.  
"I-uh... was looking for materia. And uh- found him."  
"She came down to my basement and told me that the new Shin-Ra president was looking to tare down the mansion." Vincent cut her short and said flatly.  
  
Sheila glanced at Vincent.  
He spoke stoically, and gently took a steaming cup of black tea in-between his fingers.   
  
"Yeah, that's true." Cid answered as he stroked his grizzly face.   
"I can't let him do that." Vincent sighed as let the misty streamers from the hot tea caress his pale face.  
"Let me get your cape, Mr. Valentine." Sheila offered. Cid glanced at her.  
"Why not?" Asked Cid, "Because of your- ah, coffi-"  
"No." Vincent stopped him. "It has nothing to do with my resting place." He answered as he placed his tea down and unfastened his red cape that was badly torn.  
He struggled with the buttons- as he only has one good hand.  
Sheila gently helped him.  
  
Yuffie glanced at them, and sipped her sugary tea.  
  
"Then what is it, if you pardon me for asking?" Sheila asked as she slung Vincent's cape over her arm.  
Vincent paused, and looked to Cid. "Behind the laboratory, there is a uhm. ... Well, I learned this from my past experience at Shin-Ra." He closed his eyes and took a heavy, dark breath. "They never tore down the mansion because of what's down there. Besides me. There are... creatures. They make horrible... horrible sounds at night. That's why so many think it's haunted."  
  
"Funny, I thought they thought it was haunted because of you..." Yuffie muttered sarcastically.  
  
Both Cid and Vincent ignored her. Sheila listened for a moment, but turned away and left to mend Vincent's cape.  
  
"Suffice it to say, we- or I- must stop the demolition. Either way, it must be done. If they open that room down there, it would be a declaration of war against the ... creatures. Demons. Ancient, demons. There are millions of them. The Shin-Ra, or whomever, don't know what they are getting themselves into. It's a foolish thing, Cid." Vincent said as he sipped his tea.  
  
Cid lowered his head in thought, and stroked his sandy chin.  
"I frankly don't want nothing to do with it. I'm done bein' a hero. I just want to build my airport. I KNEW that Julius kid was trouble. I was actually done bein' hero before "The Incident." I was done after I came home from the war way back so many $#%$@ years ago, Vincent. Grant it, if ya don't mind me sayin' so, I respect ya and all, but, $#%$ this ain't my battle." Cid removed his foot from the chair, and folded his arms.  
  
"Cid, please, don't make me beg you. You don't know what your saying. This could be another-"  
"No, Vincent. I @^%$# said NO! The mansion is your deal. I just don't get why your goin' about this whole thing with a kid." Cid glanced at Yuffie coldly and then turned away to follow Sheila into the wash room.  
  
"Cid!" Vincent stood abruptly and placed his tea down. "Please!" He called as he followed Cid. "At least let me..." Vincent's voice trailed off as both he and Cid vanished into the wash room.  
  
Yuffie heard faint a muffling of Sheila's, Vincent's, and Cid's voices arguing at the other side of the house.  
She finished her tea, and looked around.  
  
She wondered to herself. She didn't even know why she was traveling with Vincent; he was right- she didn't like him one bit. Why did he care so much if the mansion was getting torn down? Who cares if more monsters were released, anyway? He probably only cared about his creepy coffin being disturbed.   
  
She didn't know shy she was sticking around here. Both Cid and Vincent hated her. Yuffie stood, and looked around the house once more. She headed toward the desk in the far corner. It was a opened roll-top desk, with strewn papers of all shapes, sizes, and colors upon it. Beside them were dozens of coffee rings stains.   
She glanced up, and listened to the arguing a moment. Satisfied, she started to go through Cid's things until she found something worth taking. She found a 50$ gil hiding in one of the drawers.  
Then, she turned to leave without another thought. She closed the door silently behind her.  
  
~  
  
"Well, this is it. My pad." Cloud said with a slight smile.  
"It's... nice?" Tifa looked around with a crooked smile.  
Cloud shrugged.  
"I hope you don't mind. There is only one bed, so, I thought I'd let you have it. I'd be sleeping downstairs."  
"Cloud?"  
"Yeah?" Cloud looked up as he grabbed her bags.  
"It's ok." She said gently.  
He didn't reply, only continued lifting her bags all at once. He took them to his bedroom.  
"Is it ok if I go and shower?" She yelled to him from the other room.  
"Yeah, go ahead!" He called back.  
  
She went into the bathroom, and proceeded to undress and start the water- forgetting to shut the door.  
Her mind was swarming with things she wanted to talk about- things she needed to say- but had no idea how to go about saying them.  
  
~  
  
Tseng dragged the body into the bathtub hours ago. He was still tearing apart the apartment in search for some gasoline, or fail that- some turpentine.   
Reeve's body was beginning to smell.  
"GOD-damnit, Reeve, you good-for-nothing sod! Don't you keep anything USEFUL in here!?"   
Cans of cleaner, soap, toilet paper, towels, sponges, and plastic sporks littered the kitchen floor. (Along with blood, wine, broken glass, and a tipped-over-table.) He already ravaged the pantry and the storage room. He found nothing. The closest thing he could find was a bottle of rubbing alcohol.  
He needed something more flammable.  
  
He sighed with boiling frustration.   
"Don't make me go and BUY some gasoline just to get rid of you. God. You fucking asshole. Even after your dead you still continue being an asshole." Tseng yelled to the corpse in the bathroom as he rinsed his hands off in the kitchen sink.   
  
Tseng kicked the tipped over kitchen table, shattering it just for fun. Then, after a moment of satisfaction passed, he picked up a chair and smashed it into the wall.  
That felt good, too.  
He continued wrecking Reeve's perfectly clean, perfectly tasteful apartment until he was exhausted.  
  
Then, he pissed on the white carpet- spelling out in urine, "Reeve is an asshole."  
  
After he was satisfied befouling everything, he found an ancient can of gasoline hidden behind the furnace in the storage room. He must have over looked the dusty, cobweb covered can.   
  
As he dumped the old brown contents all over Reeve's bloody, dead body in the bathroom, he whistled, "Earth Angel."   
  
Then, he went back into the kitchen. As he wiped his sleeve across his forehead, sweat and blood fused together. He finished whistling 'Earth Angel.' He paused, and tried to remember the words to, 'Yakety Yak.' He shrugged, and searched for a match.  
  
He found a box of them in the top cupboard.  
  
He went back into the bathroom with the box. "See ya in hell, Reeve. You know how long I've wanted to say that?" He chuckled, then, the words came to him as he struck the match,  
"Take out the papers and the trash, or you don't get no spendin' cash, if you don't scrub that floor, you don't get to rock n' roll no more. Hear that, Reeve?"   
  
He smirked, and dropped the match.  
  
"Yakety yak, don't... talk... back." 


	12. Yakety Yak, Don't Talk Back!

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"  
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."  
  
By: Da CrAzY F-e-N-i-C-k-S-d-O-w-N  
  
"Earth angel, Earth angel, will you be mine? My darling dear, love you all the time, I am just a fool, a fool in love with you... Earth angel, Earth angel, the one I adore, love you forever, and ever more. I'm just a fool, a fool in love with you. I fell for you, and then I knew, the vision of love's loveliness, I hope and I prey, that someday I am the vision of your happiness." ('Earth Angel'  
The Penguins)  
  
  
"Why, that is positively horrible. Does he have any family? Uh huh."  
Dante Julius tapped his pen upon his desk. "No, it's just strange. I swear I saw him, alive and healthy, at his desk this morning. Maybe I saw his look-alike. Uh huh. Do they have any suspects to the crime? Uh huh." Dante turned his chair, and looked out the window. His secretary continued on about the details of Reeve's apparent murder. "That's odd. No, I would think that it wouldn't take that much kindling to burn a body. Huh. Weird. Well, send his wife, and daughter, or whatever, a fruit basket. Uh huh. OK, Jenny, thanks, bye. Oh-OH- Jenny, wait, sweetie, how is that demolition going on in Niblehiem? Uh huh. Yeah. Yeah. I see. Are you... free on Friday? Working? Well, your off. Your welcome. Why? Because, we are now having dinner together on Friday night. Yeah. All right, no, it's fine. Uh huh. See you at eight. Bye."  
  
Dante smiled at his beautiful reflection in the window as he hung up the phone.  
"You handsome devil, you. No, you are gorgeous!" He flecked a piece of spinach he found in his teeth away.   
  
~  
  
Cloud wandered past the bathroom. Steam was billowing out like a sauna as Tifa showered. He glanced into the bathroom, but saw nothing but gray steam.  
He sighed, and went into the kitchen to fix a few sandwiches and milk.  
He accidentally dropped the carton of milk onto the floor as he was pouring a glass for Tifa.  
Milk chugged out quickly all over his kitchen floor.  
He cursed, and picked up the red carton that had a picture of a lost child beside a picture of a smiling yellow cow.  
  
He grabbed a towel, and dropped it onto the white puddle- letting it soak up.  
"Don't cry over spilt milk, eh?" Tifa smiled as she walked in. Cloud glanced up. She was tying up her bathrobe and supporting a huge green towel upon her wet brown hair.  
"Yeah, something like that. I made you a sandwich." Cloud uttered followed by a slight sigh as he picked up the damp towel and threw it into the kitchen sink.  
"Oh, how sweet!" She forced a grin and took her plate. "What kind is it?"  
"Turkey." Cloud answered as he followed her into the living area.  
  
They sat down upon the sofa together, several feet apart.  
Tifa munched on her sandwich, and rested her feet upon the coffee table. As she stared at her toes, she noticed that the turkey was a little dry.  
  
"Tifa?"  
She turned her head. Cloud hadn't touched his sandwich, and he was staring at her.  
"I'm in love with you." He said. He spoke as if he was simply saying something perfectly, totally, common. He may as well be saying, "I like feeding ducks."  
  
"What?" Tifa forgot to swallow her sandwich. She just stared at him.  
Her mouth felt very, very dry.  
  
"I think that I'm in love with you." He repeated.  
  
She swallowed her sandwich.  
  
"No. No. Your. Not." She felt dry all over. She felt numb. He wasn't saying this. He was lying. This was just TOO fast.  
  
He put his sandwich down, and moved closer to her.  
  
"Sorry for laying it on you. But, that's just how I feel. I- I thought that you... may have felt the same. I don't know. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, you know?"  
  
"Cloud." She began. She felt herself coming back. She placed her sandwich down onto the coffee table. "You can't just- uhm- spring this all on me like that. Frankly, I don't know what I feel. But, yes, I care for you. And that's what I came here to tell you in the first place. But, I don't know, there is a lot of things going on between Barret and I."  
  
"Oh." Cloud's face fell. He felt like someone had just socked him in the stomach and pumped all the air out from his lungs.  
  
"It's not like THAT. It's just, he's there for me when you're not. And Marlene, she's such a sweetie. I don't know if anything will come of it. You have been my best friend for so long, for like, ever. You will never be replaced. I just don't know if I want a relationship with you yet. I don't know if ever. I just know that... uhm, I'm ready for love. I just don't know with who. I thought that it may have been a mother thing. That's why I went to work at the daycare. But... it's... not what I'm looking for. I've been there for nearly a half a year, and I've figured that out now. It's NOT a mother thing."  
  
"Do you... love him?" Cloud asked softly.  
  
"Him? Who? Barret? Yes. But not like that. I'm not IN love with him, Cloud. Of course I love him. He's a close friend. But frankly, I'm not physically attracted to him, so it could never work."   
  
Cloud suddenly felt relived. The dagger in his chest was pulled out. Now, he was just bleeding.  
  
"Could you... at least give us a try...?"  
  
She looked at him. Her brown eyes were the color of a fawn's soft fur coat, her face as silky as their movement in the cool underbrush.  
  
"I don't know, Cloud. I don't know. I'm... scared."   
Cloud pushed himself closer to her on the sofa, and coiled his arms around her.  
She smelt like shampoo and waving fear.  
  
~  
  
Vincent chased Cid outside.  
"PLEASE, Cid. Come with me and help me stop them from tearing down the Shin-Ra mansion. It is PARAMOUNT that they do not-"  
  
"Tell ya what, I'll fly ya to Niblehiem. But that'd where it ENDS. I've got too much to worry about myself. Sorry, Vincent. I really hate to turn ya down like this." Cid pulled his goggles down off from his head, and snapped them to his face. Then, he pulled out his white box of cigarettes from his jacket pocket.   
Vincent growled quietly, but slowly turned the gargling hiss into a exasperated sigh.  
  
"You've changed a lot, Vincent, since I last knew ya, if I wouldn't know any better, I'd say that you have found your heart and became somewhat human! You would have turned into a demon for less than this shit a couple of years ago."  
  
Upon those words, Vincent came to a complete, and total halt. It was as if Lucrecia was standing before him once again, and said those words, 'I just don't see you like that, Vincent,' all over again.  
"What... did you say, Cid?" Vincent's eyes darkened, and the air from his chest drained.  
"I said, 'It's like you found your heart, again, Vincent,' what, did I offend you? You know that out of everyone, I have the most respec-" Cid stopped as Vincent clutched his chest with his good hand.  
"Jesus!" Cid swore and dropped his cigarette. "What the %$#|@^ is wrong with you?" Cid approached Vincent.  
  
Vincent's red eyes were dilated, and his canine teeth protruded out and tapped his bottom lips with their sharp tips.  
"Don't... don't... come near me, get away... I SAID, GET AWAY from me, I can't control it!" Vincent shoved Cid away with his good hand.  
"I am not-hu-" As Vincent spoke, his voice became more of a raspy, gargling roar. "HUMAN!" He hissed.   
His red eyes narrowed, and a huge formation on his back was growing underneath his black shirt. It was as if something enormous was living upon his back side and was trying desperately to brake from the cocoon of his T-shirt.   
  
"Holy %$#%%!!!!" Cid landed upon his bottom.  
  
Then, Vincent's T-shirt broke, shattering the cotton all over the ground. Bright black wings, like that of a oversized bat, escaped free.  
  
"I couldn't... I couldn't hold it anymore!" A voice that was reminiscent of Vincent's tried to speak- but it sounded like a animal's loud cry.   
Vincent's face cocked upwards towards the sky; only now his face was less human and more of a dark demon that couldn't stand light nor loud noises.   
He seemed irritated at the sun.   
  
"Vincent!" Cid muttered. He blinked at him from under the dirty plastic of his flight goggles.  
  
Vincent growled lowly at Cid and the sudden, rather loud yell of his voice. Then  
without another beat, the demon raised it's mighty leather wings, and took off into the sky with a rattle of sand upon the dusty ground.  
  
It looked like it was heading towards Niblehiem, but Cid wasn't entirely sure.   
  
~  
  
Meanwhile, in Niblehiem...  
  
  
The man in the large cowboy hat stood looking upwards towards the mansion. It was a muggy, hot day. Flies as large as baseballs buzzed about noisily, looking for other people's business to mind.  
A big, black, wrecking ball hung limply beside the Shin-Ra mansion. A knot of crewmen stood near the gates of the mansion, preparing themselves for work.  
  
The man in the cowboy hat found a cigar. He stuffed it between his lips. "Are ya'll ready?" He grunted with a smile as he approached the construction crew.   
  
"Wut, da fuck. Is that?" One of the construction men lifted his thick, dark, hairy face and looked up into the gray sky.  
"The fuck?" Another added.   
The man in the cowboy hat lifted his head as well, and squinted into the sky.  
Something much larger than a bird, and much more alive than a plane was coming. And it was approaching fast.  
  
The man in the cowboy hat looked displeased.  
  
"Never mind dat. Just get on wit' it. Knock that sucker down, will ya?" He barked to the foreman of the large construction crew.  
  
"Yessa." The foreman nodded. Then, he ordered a couple of men to be in charge of the wrecking ball.  
  
The man in the cowboy hat kept his eyes to the sky, and watched as Vincent approached Niblehiem at a terrific speed. 


	13. Die Fledermaus

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"  
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."  
  
By: The artist formally known as Phoenix Down  
  
"'Oly mother of Christ Jesus..." The fat red man in the cowboy hat cursed as Vincent's mighty bat wings condescendingly blotted the sky with darkness.  
It was as if a black dragon, or a gigantic huge bat from the underworld had appeared and tormented the skyline.  
  
The construction crew stopped and stared. A handful of them ran in panic.  
Then, all of them ran in terror.  
  
Only the fat man in the cowboy hat remained. He didn't blink as Vincent landed right before him.  
  
He gawked, and stared as his hand fiddled with his coat pocket.  
He found his cell phone. Without looking, for his eyes were fixed on the terrible nightmarish creature, he dialed Dante.  
  
"Hello?" Dante asked, "This better be important, Ray."  
"Get yur ass here, now." Ray, the fat man, uttered with a dry mouth.  
"What is it? You need more crew?"  
"No. No. There is... a thing here. A big thing. Scared everyone off shitless." Ray paused, he thought his trousers were wet. "Me, too. Here. You wanna talk to it?"  
  
Ray offered the tiny cell phone to Vincent.  
  
Vincent hissed with a mouth full of talon-like teeth, took the phone, and crushed it in his black-clawed hand.  
  
"Uh..." Ray felt himself inch backwards. Vincent's eyes were bright red, and in tiny, brutal slits on his cruel, monster face.   
  
"You... you must be one of them from downstairs, in the Shin-Ra basement, aren't you? Ho-how did you escape? We... we didn't mean any harm. We didn't even wreck anythin' yet!"  
  
Vincent felt himself calm. Something inside of him folded up, and curled away. He was becoming less chaotic- more human... Slowly.  
  
"I am... I AM from down there... but I am not one of them..." As he spoke, he spat cold saliva onto Ray's face. He was rapidly shrinking... His wings were sliding back into his spine... Then, he collapsed to the muddy ground.  
  
"You're a MONSTER, get away from me!" Ray screamed. Tears welt up onto his pudgy face.  
  
Vincent's skin turned from ink black, to ashen gray, then to a ruddy pink... then slowly, easily, to a pasty pale.  
Ray opened his eyes, and watched the creature quickly shrivel back into a more acceptable human form.   
He lay naked upon the dirty Niblehiem ground.  
  
Ray found himself silent, and no longer screaming bloody hell.  
He blinked, fascinated at Vincent.  
"You're a ware-bat, aren't you? I've never... seen nuthin' like you before, why; you're no monster at all! I didn' know sons-of-bitches like you existed. Well, I'll be damned!" Ray nudged Vincent with his boot.  
  
"...And in broad daylight. I bet you ass-fucker drinks blood, too, no? Hey... HEY! You awake?"  
  
"...No..." Vincent groaned. "I... don't drink blood." He answered.  
  
"SHIT! You can HEAR me! They say you folk don' remember nuthin when they are transformed." Ray tipped his hat up as Vincent pulled himself together.  
  
"I am not a ware-bat." Vincent modestly wrapped his thin arms around his naked body. "Let me... borrow your jacket." He requested.  
  
"Well, what brings you here, stranger, that you gotta scare off my construction crew like that?" Ray asked as he slid off his huge gray jacket and handed it to Vincent.  
  
"I came to stop you from knocking down the Shin-Ra mansion." He replied as he gratefully took the coat and slung it around his shoulders. Carefully, he stood.  
  
"Oh?" Ray looked through him with a squinted eye, "And why's that?"  
"Because." Vincent shuddered. His eyes were not fully adjusted and they watered in pain. He rubbed them with his good arm gently. "Because I can't let you upset the creatures down there. It would be an act of war. You would bring complete chaos onto the world."  
  
"Oh? Then, you do speak fur them, eh? You ARE one of them." Ray spat out the nub of his cigar, and placed his hands upon his round hips. "'Suppose you want a peace treaty, then? Right? Well, you go back in der and TELL your slimy friends, 'no deal.' I gotta contract from Shin-Ra sayin' I OWN this place n' can knock down whatever-the-hell I WANT!"  
  
"You don't understand..."  
  
"THE HELL I don' understand, bat-boy! I wanna go down der, and see for myself what the hell LIVES down there and see if I can make MONEY, ya hear me!? I'm an explorer, if you will, a treasure hunter! I didn' get rich jus' by sittin' on my ass doin' nuthin' and not makin' deals! No sir! Ol' Ray Romeo don' work like dat! Plus, word is dat Jenova do-hicky is down der wit' them! I jus' gotta see fur myself..." Ray dug into his pockets and pulled out another cigar.  
"I've seen a lot of weird shit." He pulled out a matchbook. "But, bat-boy, you're the weirdest shit that I've ever seen. You belong in a circus."  
  
Vincent didn't dignify that with a response, but instead only stood there shuddering with nothing but an over-sized gray suit-jacket on.  
  
"Ach, for Chrissake." Ray began to unbutton his white shirt. He slid it off, and threw it upon Vincent's matted black hair.  
Ray now wore only a white T-shirt.  
  
Vincent muttered a thank you, and slid it on and buttoned it.  
He looked like he wore a long, white gown.  
  
Just as he finished dressing himself, there was a loud clapping sound coming from the sky. Treetops hissed under a sudden wind, and the repetitive, loud sound came closer and closer.  
  
Ray shaded his eyes, and looked once more into the sky. A chopper was fast approaching; it was from Shin-Ra.  
"Finally." Ray muttered under his breath. "Stupid kid."  
  
The helicopter landed several feet from the two. Vincent held the hem of his shirt down as the wind threatened to lift the gown-like covering.  
  
Before the helicopter's blades stopped spinning, Dante leapt out yelling,  
"What in the world is WRONG NOW? Do you have any idea how much money my time is worth!? Just coming out here cost me three million dollars! I was in a MEETING, RAY!"  
"It's ok, Dante. Things is cleared up now. But I ain't got no crew no more because of this prick, here."  
"Who is this pantless wonder, Ray?" Dante smirked suavely at Vincent. He eyed him once- top to bottom.  
  
"Vincent Valentine." Vincent spoke for himself. He clutched his limp claw as he spoke.  
  
"Well, well, well, I really don't want to know what you guys were doing together that lead him to be so refinely dressed. Your name is familiar, why is that?"  
"I don't know. I do not know how you would know me." Vincent dropped his gaze to his white toes.  
  
"Oh! I remember, you're that ex-Turk who was one of the infamous heroes five years ago. Simply. Amazing. I thought someone would have killed you by now. You're a legend, you know. I would have recognized your eyes anywhere. Red. Not just any red, BLOOD red. Remarkable." Dante stepped closer, and peered into Vincent's face.  
They were barely an inch apart. Neither one of them flinched or blinked.  
"I know why you are here. You don't even need to say anything. I should have considered this before; I bet you are here to save your mansion. Eh?"  
  
Ray watched flabbergasted- he, too, like millions of others, had heard of the Vincent Valentine- he was the mysterious one out of the heroes that saved the planet from Sephiroth several years ago.  
  
Before, Ray didn't believe Vincent existed. And if Vincent did exist, he was a ware-creature, a monster, or some sort of beast, and no real hero at all.   
Those whom follow myths and legends and believe in things like vampires, elves, and Bigfoot believed in Vincent Valentine. He was a story you told at night to scare small children.  
He was said to have slept in a coffin with vampires and turned into a chaotic monster on full moons.  
Often legends and truth are one in the same or close to it.  
Ray's cigar tumbled from his lips... THE Vincent Valentine...  
He THOUGHT he saw him on Conan O'Brian a few years ago... He and the 'Where's The Beef?' woman were the special guests that day. Then, he seemingly vanished. He thought that Vincent was dead or something.  
  
He became a legend.   
  
"And so... what if I am? You... and ... him... don't know what's really down there, I DO." Vincent spat in Dante's face. Dante recoiled, and pushed away the saliva patch on his cheek.  
  
"And so do I. Thanks to Tseng. He sang like a bird right before he burnt prototype A." Reeve stated simply as he approached the three men. He walked casually from the town's entrance to them.  
  
"Reeve?!" Vincent and Dante chirped in perfect harmony.   
  
"My secretary told me you were murdered in that fire... What an unusual day." Dante said lightly. He turned away from Vincent and stood near Ray.  
  
"He just killed a toy-image of me that I had been working on for years now. It's a pity, really. The plastic flesh was so realistic, it even bled. I was tiered of working on toys for children; I wanted to do something useful. I made the toy-Reeve with a camera- that's how I knew to come here. Tseng was having a tough time burning the plastic Reeve, and he began talking to himself. He told me all about the Shin-Ra mansion..."  
  
"Reeve, tell them, tell them not to tear it down." Vincent pleaded and shuddered under the thin cotton shirt. Then, he paused and reflected a moment. Tseng was... alive?  
  
"No, Vincent, I won't." Reeve grinned, and pulled out a gun. "Sorry, but, what's down there intrigues even me. Sorry, old friend. We are all going down there weather you like it or not. If it is what's left of Jenova, then, it should be totally destroyed." Reeve- the double-crossing expert, smiled like a snake.  
Dante began to admire him; he wore the same foxy smile.  
  
"Let's move. Come on." Reeve coaxed impatiently.  
  
"How do we know that you're not a toy-image of Reeve?" Ray asked with his hands in the air.   
  
"You don't. Let's move!" They all turned and began to walk towards the mansion.  
  
"Reeve, you... evil... bastard... We trusted you one too many times." Vincent growled.  
  
"Shut your hole, Vincent, and keep marching. Sorry, old friend, I was never really to be trusted."  
  
Vincent said nothing as the gun barrel kissed his back shoulder blade.   
"Nice dress, by the way. Totally takes away that tall-dark-and-dignified thing you had goin' on for a while." Reeve sarcastically sneered as they walked. "Hey, and don't even THINK about pulling any funny business. No tricks, no weapons, no CLAWS, that means you, Vincent, and NO turning into creatures."  
  
Reeve walked behind the single file line that lead into the abandoned Shin-Ra mansion. Ray lead, whit his hands high in the air, then Dante, then Vincent, and lastly, with the gun pointed, Reeve.  
  
"But..." Ray pleased as they walked. "HEY NO TALKING! I DON'T want to hear it!!! That's it, hands in the air, everyone." The party stopped, turned, and lifted their hands.  
Reeve walked in front of them, as if a sergeant checking his men for inspection. He started with Ray.  
He patted Ray's pockets, checked his hat, and his pants. He found three cigars and a loaded silver revolver.  
He took everything.  
Then, he patted down Dante before they entered the mansion.  
He found three pistols, one of them loaded with the safety off. He also collected them.  
He didn't bother checking Vincent.  
"All right, MOVE." Reeve ordered. They marched obediently in silence.  
  
~  
  
Cloud bent in to kiss her; his shaggy blonde hair and rough chin tickled her fingers.  
"Cloud... no." She whispered.   
He stopped. His wide, bright blue eyes burned in hunger.  
  
"I wouldn't do anything that you weren't comfortable with." He whispered back. His breath smelt like turkey.  
"I know..." She said softly. She heard that so many times before from men, 'I won't do anything you weren't comfortable with...' But, they usually tried to press on, anyway.  
Not that a part of her didn't mind.  
  
"I just don't think I'm ready... to kiss you yet... You know?"  
"I... know. I understand." He pulled back completely and looked to his feet. He suddenly felt foolish.  
  
"It's not you." She sat up on the sofa and faced him with serious eyes. "I just... uhm. Cloud. I'm. A virgin."  
"What?!"  
"Why are you so surprised?" She asked with a unfunny chuckle.  
"Well, I'm not, not really, but..." He itched his head nervously. He WAS surprised.   
"I don't want to be with anyone until I know that I'm in love with them." She sunk back into a sofa with a shy grin.  
He looked at her. "I wasn't trying to... uhm, sleep with you, you know? I just wanted to kiss you. I don't take back on what I said about how I feel about you, Tifa."  
Her eyes drifted to his face, "I know."  
  
"Tifa?" He asked as he rested his thin face onto his palm. "Why don't you love me? How long have we known each other?" His voice cracked. Memories of his childhood seeped into his brain: he was unpopular. She hung out with a different knot of kids- they always rejected him. He wasn't good enough for her- he never was. That's why she didn't love him...?  
"Cloud. I DO love you. I TRUST you. And "The Incident" has brought us closer... but..."  
"No, it hasn't, Tifa." Who was she kidding- Cloud thought- she hadn't called him in MONTHS. She spent all her time with BARRET. "In my mind, things haven't changed since childhood. I wasn't... I wasn't ever good enough for you, was I?" He suddenly gripped her hand.  
"Cloud, no..." She whimpered.  
"No-? NO? Tifa. I've been in love with you since I could remember. But, I... I can't play those games anymore. I've grown up, maybe you haven't..." His voice fell to a broken whisper, "Five years ago I thought I found a replacement for you in my heart because you never wanted to give me a chance. But, she died, along with my dreams of sharing my life with someone, Tifa. I still haven't stopped loving you. Make up your mind, so I can stop..." He took a breath, "Stop hurting. Do you love me, or do you not?"  
She stared at him, and didn't answer.  
  
Cloud did not begin to weep, he began to bleed clear, salty drops from his blue eyes.  
  
"I can't take this." He stood. He wanted her out of his house, but didn't have the heart to tell her that.  
  
"Cloud, wait!" She sat up again. His back was turned to her. He didn't want her to see him cry.  
  
"W...What?" He choked. He felt his eyes burn.  
  
"I...I...love you, Cloud."  
  
He began to walk towards the front door.  
  
She heard the door slam coldly.   
  
But it was a hot, rainy afternoon. 


	14. Live to Die

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"  
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."  
  
By: Down, Phoenix.  
  
"He's the loneliest man that I've ever seen..." (Billie Holiday, from the song, 'Fine and Mellow')  
  
Tifa didn't know that hours could pass by so slowly. It seemed like eternity, and Cloud still hadn't returned.  
Every word and action he said and did, rolled around and repeated inside of her head.  
She misinterpreted him.  
He didn't want to kiss her because he wanted sex- he wanted to kiss her because HE REALLY DID LOVE HER.  
  
How could she have been so STUPID to misread that? She yelled at herself, inside of her mind.  
  
She must have really, really hurt him... to make him run out like that.  
  
She played with the tennis ball with her feet as she sat on his sofa silently, in his living room.  
  
She didn't realize how quiet his villa gets. The only sound was the occasional echoing drip from the bathroom several rooms back.  
  
He must be lonely, Tifa thought. She felt sorry for him.  
  
Slowly, her heart filled with sympathy and love... He loved her. He LOVED her... He really, really, truly, loved her. For so long. Why couldn't this be a story book? Being truly loved felt... really good...  
  
Tifa looked up onto the living room ceiling. There were a couple of hiding water spots. How long was he going to be? Was he actually coming back?   
There was a few things she wanted to tell him. She rehearsed them in her mind. "Cloud, I didn't say that I loved you because you wanted to hear it. I was just to shy and too SCARED to say it, then. Can you understand that? Maybe, maybe we CAN work, I'm just to... scared to TRY it. Ok? I mean... what will Barret think? Did you... did you know that he loves me, too? I don't want to hurt him, Cloud. I don't want to hurt you, either. I figured that choosing no one will hurt nobody. Can you understand that?" She sighed. That sounded good. That was how she felt. Then, he would ask, 'How do YOU feel, Tifa? What do YOU want?'  
She would reply... honestly... the only thing she could think of.  
  
The truth.  
  
She would whisper, with her lips slightly pursed, and her eyes narrowed, and the stars would be bright,   
"I want YOU, Cloud Strife."  
  
Then, they would kiss...  
  
She blushed at the thought.  
  
She suddenly wanted to find him, and try it out.  
  
It wasn't too late, was it?  
  
She stood and untied the bathrobe, and tore off the green towel from her hair, and walked stark naked from the living room to the bedroom.  
She pulled out a short jeans skirt and a black no-sleeved blouse from her suit-case.  
It was the nicest outfit she brought with her.  
She laced up her- what she nicknamed- her 'stripper boots.' They were black, leather, and laced up to her knee.  
Stripper-boots or not, they looked classy with a jeans skirt. She took her case of make-up to the bathroom and quick did the, 'I-need-to-go-out-in-a-hurry,' make-up job.  
She untangled the knots from her hair, and tied it up in a bun.  
(That's the, 'I-need-to-go-out-and-look-good-but-don't-have-time-to-fiddle-with- my-hair, do.)  
She finished the look with dark-reddish-brown lipstick.  
  
Satisfied, she grabbed her purse and ran out the door.  
  
She stood on the steps of the villa as the door behind her slowly, painfully, closed.  
She looked around.  
  
Couples walked hand-in-hand while talking closely underneath the drowned out light of the full moon. Orange halos of street lights illuminated the faces of a handful of laughing, loud teenagers.  
The streets were filled with night-life; women dressed up in comfortable clothes and heavy makeup, and the men sized one another up while wearing light leather jackets and T-shirts.  
  
Tifa tried to smile- after all, she did seem to fit right in.  
  
She just had no idea on where to START looking for Cloud.  
It seemed a little camp to yell his name- after all, everyone would just start looking at her oddly. But, she was tempted to. She wanted to find him; badly. She had so many things to say to him- and she wanted to say them NOW before she would loose her nerve.  
  
She decided to check the bar, first.   
The bar was right down the street, not even a five minute walk. As she approached, a group of men stopped their loud chattering, and watched her walk by.  
She felt a little flattered, but also a little humiliated; she felt each and every one of their eyes undress her.  
  
She stepped into the bar.  
It was crowded and foggy. The air was filled with filmy, blue and gray cigarette smoke. The bar was glazed over in a thick haze of conversation and the smell of alcohol.   
But it was a good bar. She liked the atmosphere here.  
Many of the men were shirtless.  
  
But after a careful glance around from the door, she could tell that Cloud wasn't there.  
  
She turned to leave. As she walked out the door, the men standing there before suddenly broke the relatively friendly outside with obscene cat calls and whistling.  
"Hey, can I order some fries with that shake, sweetie!?"  
"Nice shoes, wanna fuck?"  
"I wonder if I blow on those jugs, I'll get a nice hallow sound, oh, wait, no, that only works then you blow in her ears..."  
  
Tifa ignored them, and continued heading down towards the sea shore. She had a feeling that Cloud would be there thinking.   
  
Little did she notice, three of the men outside the bar who were yelling to her had one too many drinks in them.  
They began to follow her to the poorly-lit, sparsely populated sea-shore.  
Needless to say, the ideas in their mind were a little malevolent, very violent, and quite sexual.  
  
It was all a joke and a power game to them. They wouldn't have done it if it weren't for that last shot of JD.  
  
Tifa was oblivious of all of this. She had no idea that she was being followed.  
  
  
"Cloud?" She said gently- mostly to herself as she approached the beach. The gentle scent of the sea sailed along the whispering zephyrs. The white full moon stared into it's own speckling reflection on the black waters.  
The sound of the waves ripped gently upon the sandy shore.  
  
She glanced around, and did not see him there, either.   
She unlaced her boots, and slid them off.  
Then, she carried them to the beach, and sat near the waves.  
She slid off her socks, and the water tickle her toes.  
  
She reflected a moment as she stared into the moon; then, shortly after, she thought about nothing.  
  
Sand crept into her skirt. It itched, but she paid it no mind.  
  
  
  
"Heh heh, let's go. Look, she's sittin' there right."  
"You mean, 'right there.'"  
"Shhhhut da fuck up, Morton."  
"My names Mark, and your slurring your words. Listen, I don't want to do this with you guys, ok? It's not right. She's just a poor defenseless girl."   
"You need to lighten up, Mark. Look, that bitch thinks she's better than us! Did you see the way she walked past us?"  
"Did ya sssseee the size of her... *hick... tits?! Thhhey were... fuckin' HUGE!"  
  
Mark folded his arms, and felt blood rush to his cheeks as his eyes fell. He did not want to appear to be a 'pussy'. He wasn't he KNEW he wasn't a pussy... but they sounded like they were talking ... rape? He had much less to drink than Eric and James. And Eric got mean when he drank.  
They weren't even his friends... really...  
  
"I... *hick... LOVE... you, Marty..." James draped one arm around Mark's shoulders.  
"Stop it, James." Mark snapped.  
"Let's go. I'm game, I'm ready. Let's get that bitch." Eric's eyes sparkled.   
Mark swallowed, and glanced at James.  
  
Eric flipped open his hunting knife. He never left home without it. Mark and James followed nearly silently behind him.  
  
  
Tifa wrapped her arms about her knees. She didn't hear the three men walk up.  
Big black shadows moved across her head and face.  
She looked up.  
Three sneering smiles beamed down upon her.  
  
"Yeah? Can I help you guys?"  
"No, but I'm sure you can help us." Eric giggled.  
  
Tifa felt a sudden impending doom crush her.  
  
"Uh..." She wanted to say something. She had the sudden urge to RUN.  
  
"Lay down, bitch!" Eric snapped.   
"N...No." Tifa whimpered as she sat helpless.  
  
"He SAID, LAY DOWN." Mark kicked her in the ribs.  
  
"I said, NO! NO! NO! HELP! HELP!" Tifa screeched. She tried to stand, but Mark continued kicking her in the ribs every time she moved.  
Eric flashed his knife. Instantly, she stopped struggling. She began to sob loudly, and scream for help.  
"Shut the fuck up, and do as we tell you..." Eric grimaced.  
  
"Get away from HER!" Cloud's voice echoed over the ocean waves.  
He came running down the beach with his sword in hand.  
  
"CLOUD!" Tifa stood as the three men turned around.  
"Oh, I don't believe this!" Eric grunted. As he spoke, Mark ran. James stumbled away.  
  
  
Eric turned, and saw his friends vanished. He starred at Cloud. Then, he bolted away.  
  
"...Coward." Cloud hissed as he steadied Tifa on her feet. She shook violently with fear.   
"Sorry, Cloud." She muttered under her tears. She tried to rub them away, but wound up pushing sand into her eyes.  
"What do you have to be sorry for?" He asked gently. "Come on, let's go home."  
"No..." She sniffed, "NO! I have so much to say for you. Fuck. I got all dressed up, and look what happened! It's all my fault, it was supposed to be a perfect night. I went looking for you, Cloud. I had something to TELL you."  
  
Cloud took her hand. She continued to rub her red eyes. "Cloud. I wanted to tell you... uhm. That before. I didn't say that just because you said it to me. I said that erlier because that's how I really felt. And... uhm." She sniffed. "Oh, God, Cloud, I'm sorry. I'm so scared. I'm so scared and I'm sorry. Fuck. I'm sorry for everything, Cloud, everything, you know? I really, really, really, DO love you, but I'm so scared... I'm scared of everything. And, now's not the right time, is it?"  
"No." He smiled. "Now's a perfect time..." He placed his hands upon her hips, but kept her at a distance to let her cry.  
"Your not mad at me, are you?" She lifted her face. Her makeup was completely smeared and worn away. Bit's of sand still flecked her cheeks, and hardened onto her skin as they made contact with the tears.  
He placed his palm gently upon the side of her face, and brushed the dirt away with his thumb.  
"No. I'm not. Of course I'm not, Tifa. Not anymore." He kissed her forehead, and smiled down at her. "You admitted to how you really felt. That's all I was angry about, not at you, but... I was angry at the fact that you didn't admit to yourself about what you really WANTED."  
  
She dropped her doe eyes. "I'm sorry. I was just scared. I knew... I KNEW," she smirked, "That you were going to ask what I wanted."  
  
"I love you." He whispered.  
  
~  
  
"But... But... You can't get to that room, Reeve, unless you knock down the mansion." Dante quipped.  
"That's not entirely true..." Vincent said quietly.  
"What?" Ray turned his fat face to him.  
"You can GET to the wall, you just can't get passed it without tearing it down." Vincent continued.  
"I don't care. Show me the wall, then." Reeve ordered with the gun still pointed to them.   
  
"I know the Shin-Ra mansion better than anyone." Vincent said with a flake of importance to his tone.  
  
"What is behind the wall, then?" Reeve asked, pointing the gun to Vincent's head.  
  
"I... don't... know... The wall has a bookcase built into it, and at least several feet of stone slab and clay behind that. But, that's where the monster lair is, if that's what you're looking for."  
  
Reeve cocked the gun.  
  
"You're being irrational, Reeve. We need a wrecking ball." Dante tried reasoning with him; his arms began to ache from being up in the air for so long.   
  
"Just show me the wall, first." Reeve snapped with peppered anger and frustration in his voice.  
  
"Fine." Vincent said dropping his arms.   
  
Ray, Dante, Vincent, and Reeve stood in a small bedroom in the Shin-Ra mansion. The far stone wall in the bedroom was slightly ajar; it in reality, was a secret passage way that lead to a tiered, wooden spiral staircase to the basement.  
In the basement was Vincent's resting place, the secret Sephiroth laboratory, and- beyond that- the legendary monster lair that they were in search of.  
"There is a knot on this wall that opens the passageway downstairs." Vincent said quietly as he turned, and ran his good hand upon the frozen, dark stones. "It... it's already open. Look." Vincent slid his fingers along the open crack in the doorway.  
He pulled, and swung open the stone wall- that really was a doorway to the hidden basement.  
  
Reeve pushed Vincent aside, and he eagerly lead the party down the wooden staircase.  
Both Dante and Ray lowered their stiff arms as they aloud themselves to become swallowed into the whale belly of the impending darkness down beneath the Earth.  
  
They traveled down, down,  
  
Down.  
  
Little rays of shy white light slid in strait streams and landed softly upon the cool dirt downstairs.   
  
The sunlight that came downstairs with them nearly seemed gray; it did not illuminate anything beyond ten feet before them.  
  
"We are going to need.. uhm, a torch, or something, if we want to continue further." Dante pointed out as he strained his eyes to see.  
  
"No need. I know this place too well." Vincent said emotionlessly. The rage inside of him towards Reeve lurched forward and grumbled. How could Reeve have the nerve to betray his trust? He should have known better. He once worked for the Shin-Ra, he KNEW they were scum... Like himself. He, too, was guilty of working for the Shin-Ra, once...  
  
"I have a lighter." Ray offered. He dug into his pocket and produced a golden cigar lighter. Reeve snatched it as if stealing were an instinct. "Thanks. I'll give it right back. Now, move."   
  
Under the flickering, orange halo of a cigar lighter, they walked into the motionless shadows before them.  
  
Ray couldn't keep himself from sweating, despite the cold, dead air.  
  
Dante was petrified of the darkness. It wasn't the shadows itself that frightened him; it was the unknown, the things and the people he could not control. He couldn't keep himself from violently shaking in fear as he walked. Every time he spoke, he tried his best to control his sputtering- so he didn't look like the weak, frightened fool that he really was deep inside of his soul.  
  
Every time he saw a patch of black flutter, he jumped. He felt a near panic attack creep upon him.  
  
Vincent felt completely, totally, safe and at home there in the dusty, wet smells of the Shin-Ra basement. Returning to the darkness, the silence, the enclosed safe of death's black womb was nothing less than comfort.   
They were walking HIS turf. He knew every stone, twist, and small animal in this basement.  
His eyes didn't hurt any longer, either.  
  
Reeve swelled and perspired in anticipation. He LOVED the trill of holding people hostage, of controlling them, and of walking into the unknown. He was pink with adrenaline. Everything was spinning. He was excited. A rush. It was all a game- together, under his control- they were discovering and walking into the unknown.  
  
There was a weak, muffling sound close by.  
It echoed. Whatever it was, it sounded feeble.  
  
"Shh. What was that?" Reeve stopped completely, and turned to Vincent.  
The weak, flat, golden light of the lighter lit Reeve's serious face. His features were heavily angled and sharp, as if someone chiseled his countenance out of stone with a screwdriver.  
Vincent shrugged. He began to loathe Reeve and his triple crossing ways.  
  
It was as if no moral fiber existed in his slimy skin.  
  
"Maybe it was a BAT." Ray whispered glancing to Vincent.  
  
"No." Vincent replied flatly, slightly annoyed. "Bat's don't sound remotely like that. It sounded human. Someone must have beaten us here."  
  
"Let's keep moving. If someone is already here, they must be in the lab." Reeve spoke officially as he continued on.  
  
Vincent glanced at the broken door that lead to his resting place. He remembered when Yuffie, not long ago, broke in to wake him. It was the first of many things that lead up to this situation.  
  
Dante thought he was going to vomit when he saw something in the darkness that sort of looked like a skull. (Although, it was nothing more than a piece of wood with a hole in it and shadows playing tricks upon it.)  
  
"Hey, did you guys 'ere dat?" Ray stopped and asked as he brought up the rear. He seemed even fatter as he stood near the three thin men in the dull light.  
They all heard it.  
They all fell silent and stopped.  
Whatever it was, it was now very loud, and sounded very human and female.  
  
It sounded pitiful.  
  
"It might be a monster from the lair." Reeve suggested.  
Vincent knew the sounds of the basement.  
He knew that Reeve was wrong, but didn't care to say anything.  
  
Dante was paler than paper, and quaked evilly.  
  
Reeve turned around, and saw a thin green line that hung in the emptiness before him. It was a doorway, some light somewhere.  
He groped in the darkness, heading for the light.  
They followed him. Dante ran to it, hungrily.  
  
Reeve pushed open the door, letting the light fill the shadowed spaces. They winced as they were stabbed with lamplight.  
  
As the party stood in the lab room, they looked about.  
The room had been untouched since the day Sephiroth came and ravaged it for knowledge. Ancient papers, yellow and old, scattered the floor like forgotten, wingless canaries.   
  
Books went unread, records went scattered and lost. All collected layers of dust, mold, and cobwebs. They stretched out on book cases for miles.  
  
"Thank god." Dante sighed. "Let's find that huge book case, check it out, and leave. This place gives me the creeps."  
Ray agreed as he lumbered further in and looked about.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"I think not."  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
A voice from nowhere said.  
  
  
  
  
  
Then, the lights fell silent. They were violently shoved into the empty, cold darkness once more. Not a fleck of light escaped to shudder it's warmth anywhere.  
  
  
  
  
  
"HEY!"  
  
"The... fuck?"  
  
"Whose there?! Show yourself!"  
  
"Oh, my god, oh, my god, oh, my FUCKING GOD! I'm FREAKING OUT!"  
  
  
  
BANG!  
  
  
  
  
"Ow!"  
  
  
"Vinnie!"  
  
  
"MY LEG! FUCK!"  
  
  
"Someone, turn back on the lights!"  
  
  
"Something BIT my leg!"  
  
"Who has the gun!?"  
  
  
"Vincent! Help!"  
  
"I think... I think I'm gunna barf."  
  
  
"Dante? Reeve? Where ARE you? Who is calling my name? WHO IS that?"  
  
  
Flick.  
  
  
Everyone's eyes snapped. A bright, round, bubble of light appeared and hovered in the darkness.  
  
Tseng was holding a match. And he was holding Yuffie, tightly, to his chest, with a gun pressed to her skull.  
  
"Vinnie! Oh...!" She gulped and panicked. So, it was she whom made those pathetic sounds they heard earlier in the hallway...  
  
"Vinnie! Where is your pants!!!?" She struggled and yelped. Tseng's grip on her was too professional. As a Turk, he knew how to keep someone in a cruel, effective lock.  
  
"Let her go, Tseng, she has nothing to do with anything!" Reeve approached Tseng's bulb of firelight.  
  
"Reeve. I won't stop until I kill you like you killed me." Tseng lifted the gun from Yuffie's head, and pointed it point black to Reeve's.  
  
Without hesitation, he fired.  
  
No one could have acted quickly enough to stop him.  
  
The gun blast whipped the matches light into oblivion.  
  
And everything screamed back into black.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
"REEEEVE!" Yuffie screeched. She broke free of Tseng's grip, and dove to his side. She felt something sticky and hot moisten her knees as she knelt near him.  
  
The room smelt of gunpowder and metallic blood.  
  
"Would someone tell me what the fuck is going on?" Dante yelled, then, he vomited with a retching sound.  
  
"Cover your eyes." Vincent ordered. A moment later, a lamp flickered on with hesitation.  
  
Tseng had vanished. Reeve was a bloody mess on the floor. His eyes were wide open, dilated, and filmed over. Yuffie leapt back in horror.  
Her hands, feet, and thighs were covered in blood.  
She, too, felt her body leap and reject her stomach contents.  
  
She swallowed, but her mouth and throat were dead dry.  
  
"Calm down, Yuffie. We don't know if that's really him. It may be..." He sighed, and turned his head in slight repugnance, "Another one of his toys. We don't know for sure."  
  
"Where is that guy?" Ray grunted and scratched the back of his hot-dog neck. "Sure is a good toy if it is one. It sure looks... real." Ray bent down and dabbed his fingers with blood.  
  
"Jesus Christ." Dante pulled his sleeve across his lips. "WHERE the FUCK is that WALL we have been looking for, that's what I'd like to know! And where the FUCK did Tseng come from! I thought he was DEAD! I didn't come all this way for NOTHING!" Ray stepped over Reeve's body, and approached Dante.  
  
"Frankly," Ray began, eyeing the book shelves, "I'd like to know that, too."  
  
"I NEED to SEE what's behind that wall!" With trembling hands, Dante began to pull off books from the furthest and the largest book shelf in the room- which was located behind Sephiroth's old desk. One by one, he threw them carelessly to the floor.  
Ray began to help him.  
  
"There must be a secret knob, or handle, or SOMETHING!"   
  
"What's behind the wall can't be any more frightening than the creatures in this very room. Come, Yuffie, let's go." Vincent said darkly. 


	15. Secrets Lie Here

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"  
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."  
  
By: WoUlDn'T YOU like TO KNOW?!  
  
  
  
"Don't tell me to feel sad.  
Don't tell me not to get mad.  
Don't tell me what to choose,  
I already know I'm going to loose."  
  
(A Vincent Valentine recording. Off the album, 'Nightmares Under the Stairs.' From the song, 'Don't Tell me.' [Phoenix Down records. All of this is a complete fabrication of her imagination. All rights reserved.]  
  
  
It occurred to Vincent to take Reeve's gun from his cold, dead, fingers.  
And his clothes, too, for that matter.  
Vincent, for the time being, was standing in nothing but an over sized shirt.  
(He was feeling a bit drafty.)  
  
He pried the small handgun from Reeve, and flicked open the bullet chamber.  
His eyes that were the colored of blood dried upon autumn leaves, widened.  
  
There was nothing in the chamber.  
  
Reeve wasn't nor couldn't shoot them all along.  
  
It was a game.  
  
He looked down at the corpse. A game that may or may not have cost him everything.  
Vincent hoped that Reeve knew what he was doing, wherever he was.  
  
"Hey..." Yuffie tapped Vincent upon the shoulder.  
"What is it, what's wrong?" She asked, slightly concerned on why he was staring at Reeve's gun.  
  
"It was... empty." Vincent said quietly.  
  
"So?"  
  
"That means he... he wasn't going to shoot us." Vincent dropped the gun onto the laboratory floor.  
  
"Oh." Yuffie truly wasn't interested. Her small attention span was instead captured by Ray and Dante who were obsessively searching the far wall for a secret passage. She leapt over the stiffening dead body, and ran towards the other two men whom were loudly cursing among themselves.  
  
  
Vincent dragged the corpse over to the corner to strip him, and dress himself.  
  
  
  
  
"Did you guys find anything?" Yuffie asked. She flipped a piece of short brown hair away from her large, young eyes.  
Dante glanced up at her. He had busied himself with a few leaves of Sephiroth documents that were left abandoned many years ago.  
Ray was still shoving large tomes off of the wooden bookshelf.  
  
"Not yet, girl." Dante replied, locking eyes with her seriously. "You can help."  
She smelt like fresh meat to him.  
  
"Your friend there took a spill." Ray chimed in as he reached up for a particularly high book to rip down.  
  
Yuffie didn't reply as her eyes scanned the wall like a hunting hawk.  
"Look. Here. What's this?" She reached up to a large, old, red book what had a gold spine. Upon the spine were the words written in calligraphy, "Secrets Lie Here."  
  
She pulled the book.  
  
The ancient Shin-Ra wall began to groan.   
Dante leapt back and grinned, "Hello!"  
  
Vincent turned around. He was struggling with his pants, as it is always difficult to dress with one good arm.  
  
"Well, I'll be damned." Ray muttered as he stepped back and searched his pockets for a cigar.  
  
Behind the bookshelf was a long, polished cave.  
Strange sounds echoed from below.  
  
~  
  
They wandered the streets of Costa del Sol until the smattering of pale dawn. Whites, baby pinks, thick clouds, and cold dew tapped the tips, gently, of every palm tree.  
When they returned to the villa, they were holding hands. Their throats were sore from the gluttony of laughter and talking they had the night before.  
They kissed, only once, with no tongue.  
  
Tifa kicked off her boots. She would sleep with no shirt, but she was too shy. 'Not just yet,' she said to herself.  
  
Cloud slept beside her in his bed. He, too, stayed fully clothed. It didn't even occur to him not to.  
He placed one arm around her stomach. And they slept, on their side, as if they had been doing so for years.  
  
The moment Tifa's head touched the pillow, she was sound asleep.  
  
Cloud listened to her breathe four hours before he felt tiered.  
The overhead fan in his bedroom spun slowly in the afternoon heat as time wore on.  
  
He turned over, and looked out the window.  
  
...And he watched the clouds walk by the Sunday sun.  
What a lazy day.  
  
Cloud smiled.  
  
For once, he wasn't lonely.  
  
"Hello, Cloud, how are you?" People would ask him years down the line. Even if he wasn't with Tifa then, (god forbid- he thought)  
He could answer, quite honestly,  
  
"I've been good. I've had bad times, though. I'm just, you know, walking by life." Then, he'd smile. 


	16. Aw, Rats!

The Headless Aftermath and Other Rats in the Sun  
  
From the author of, "An Autobiography of Vincent Valentine,"  
And, "Phantom Wall Devils: An Interview with Sephiroth."  
  
By: Today and tomorrow, I will be known only as, "Guy Incognito."   
  
  
  
  
  
Yuffie, Vincent, Ray, and Dante stood before the book case that opened up into a long, black cave.  
There was a roar of silence protruding from the vast blackness below.   
They stood and stared into the abyss, their eyes searching in the void and becoming swallowed in it's endless black color.  
  
A cool, cool, wind, much colder than ice, swiftly slid by them; it smelt strange- it was the smell of winter, hope, and licorice.   
The darkness tasted like lilies.  
  
Yuffie didn't notice when her hand found Vincent's claw. Like a child, she shuddered and held onto him for dear life.   
She had never seen anything so intimidating and horrifying before.  
  
Dante began to feel claustrophobic.  
  
"Well, this is da moment we've been waitin' for! Let's go!" Ray's voice bolted up.  
  
"N...Now?" Dante shivered.  
  
"Aw! NOW's not the time to be a pussy, Dante! We have been working for this for a long time now! We didn't come all dis way fur nuthin', you know?!"   
  
"As I recall, this is YOUR project and YOUR idea, Ray, I've got NOTHING to do with it! You bought and paid for..."  
  
"Shhh!" Ray hissed.   
  
  
Everyone fell silent once more, and listened.  
  
The plucking of a soft harp was heard, being drowned out by the silence, whispering softly.  
  
"Now... THAT'S creepy..." Yuffie gulped.  
  
"Jenova is down there..." Ray rolled up his sleeves and began to walk into the polished cave. The ground was slick like glass, and was frozen still. It was as if it was slicked with water, but it was only the dark shine upon the walls.  
  
"Where are you going?!" Yuffie gasped. She clutched Vincent's claw tighter. He didn't notice at all that she held onto him.  
  
  
"Wut's it look like, little missy?" Ray asked as he slowly began to vanish into the black hole. His voice echoed in light waves.  
  
The melodic music of the cave began to grow, as if a beautiful creature that was swallowing him whole, and only growing larger with new found strength.   
  
"What an idiot!" Dante barked and crossed his arms about his chest the moment Ray had completely vanished.  
  
"He will never return! I bet you! There are MONSTERS down there!..." Dante flashed his deep blue eyes to Vincent. "Well! SAY something! You have been WAY too quiet! It's making me SICK!" Dante snarled.  
  
"Shouldn't we go rescue him?" Yuffie looked up and released Vincent- whom seemed transfixed into staring out into the ink black space.  
He simply stood there, watching, wordlessly.  
  
"And what is MAKING that MUSIC?!" Dante turned in a paranoid sort of manner, and yelled. His perfectly combed bleached blonde hair leapt as he spun around. "I DON'T like it!"  
  
"Shut up." Vincent snapped.  
  
Another sound was coming from the cave.   
  
It was a weak whimper.  
  
It sounded like Ray.  
  
"We should go help him!" Yuffie begged.   
  
"No. We shouldn't. That's a BAD idea. We don't know what's down there." Dante looked crossly at her.  
  
"But your friend Ray is down there!" She wined.   
  
"Friend is a loose term. What say you, Vincent?" Dante turned while raking his fingers through his hair.  
  
"I say. We go find him." He glanced at Dante with bloody red eyes.  
  
A annoyed, fearful expression exploded upon his perfect lips. "I... Don't like this. I fucking hate this. I don't like this at all." He said as he turned to look into the blackness.  
  
The blackness looked back at him.  
  
"Alright!" Vincent touched his cheek with his good hand. "Yuffie, stay here. Dante, come on."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
"WHAT!!? I'm not going down there!" Dante snarled.  
  
"And I'm not staying here!" Yuffie stamped her foot.  
  
"Fine. Do what you like. I will see you when I get back." Vincent began to walk into the land of shadows.  
  
"Take me with you!" Yuffie ran after him. Vincent did not offer her a response. Together, they faded into nothing.  
  
Dante looked around the laboratory. Books and papers scattered the room. The book case stood at a tall angle to the endless large hole.  
The room just didn't look right anymore with the black thing standing there.  
The room didn't even FEEL right anymore. It seemed like a doorway that one couldn't tell where it lead to.  
Yuffie was right.  
The room felt sort of creepy now.  
And the music of the harp had only seemed to grow louder.  
  
It was sad, lamenting melodies.  
  
As if it was singing softly to someone whom had just fallen asleep forever.  
  
Dante sat down on the floor with his back to the cave.  
Then, he shuddered. What if something just grabbed him and slit his throat from behind?!  
  
He turned around.  
  
But he didn't want to FACE the cave. That was too scary.  
He slid his bottom up against a wall.  
He shook.  
He hated waiting.  
  
~  
  
"What do you think is down ... uhm. Here?" Yuffie whispered to Vincent as they walked together down the cave, which seemed to gradually ascend downward. She glanced at him when he did not reply.   
Then, almost inaudibly, he answered, "We are soon to find out."  
  
As the darkness grew louder, so did the harps music. It reverberated off the walls and infiltrated their brain. Slowly, the glossy floors gradually rose to steps that spiraled downward into the abyss.   
  
The walled seemed to grow wider the further down they went. The blackness seemed to feed their eyes, and soon they became addicted to it. Nothing but the darkness could their heads be used to.   
  
"Vincent, I'm scared." Yuffie muttered when it seemed that it was only infinity they were traveling.  
  
Vincent answered with nothing.  
  
The moment that Yuffie felt that she couldn't drag herself to take one more step downward was the moment that they reached the bottom.  
  
Yuffie fully convinced herself that she could see things in the midnight black- for dim shapes seemed to have appeared before her.  
  
Vincent knew that there was a trickle of light coming from somewhere- for he-too, saw something.   
  
Ray groaned.   
  
Yuffie jumped.  
  
The harp continued to play- very- very- loudly.  
  
"Ray?" Vincent asked.  
  
"Uhhh..."   
  
Vincent followed the dull golden light source that trickled from the corner. Yuffie tailed him, not wanting to loose sight of Vincent for even a moment.  
  
The slice of dim light spiked out from a huge, heavy, door. Vincent pushed it open and shaded his red eyes from the weak rays. "Ray?" He called out once more.   
The circular room he found himself in was not unlike the room that was in the Ancient temple that collapsed upon Tseng nearly five years ago. Vincent looked about, simply in awed to the golden, huge, hieroglyphics upon the walls.   
There was a hole nearly fifty feet up upon the ceiling, but the dull golden light came from what sat in the middle of the tower-like room.  
It was a huge flame.  
  
The flame watched Vincent and Yuffie, as if it were an ancient being with no eyes, mouths, ears, or legs. It was a white and yellow presence that seemed wise and old.  
  
Ray was in the far side of the room underneath a carving of a huge centaur-like creature upon the wall, lying on his stomach. His hat was a few feet from him, and his head was bleeding profusely.  
  
"What happened to you?" Yuffie ran to his side and asked sarcastically.  
  
"Uhh-oh. A rock fell from da carvin' right there and hit me on da head. I was tryin' to translate the Sanskrit, dere, Ohhh..."  
  
Vincent looked up at the huge, ornate murals upon the round wall. There, near the centaur's nose, a piece of wall was cracked and falling.  
  
"What is this place?" Vincent asked as Yuffie helped him to his feet.  
  
"Seems to USED to be a monster's meeting place. They. Uhh... Have a society, you know. But it ain't no more. Looks like dey have something like the Indian's at Cosmo Canyon have... uhg. A sacred Candle. Da carvin' on the wall say dat there are THREE Sacred Candle's that never extinguish in the world."  
  
"Where is that music coming from?" Yuffie asked as she scooped up his hat.  
  
"The candle sings. Thanks, lil' missy." Ray smiled weakly as he took his hat from her.   
  
"Sings?" Vincent asked as he looked to the large, white flame.  
  
"Yep. Now, let's go. Dis place gives me da creeps, and I betcha any money dat Dante ain't..."  
  
"Now, wait just a sec, I thought you said Jenova was down here!" Yuffie stamped her foot and yelled.  
  
"It was. See those track marks behind the fire?" Ray pointed a fat finger towards the violent, claw like marks behind the flame.  
  
Both Vincent and Yuffie turned to look. There, behind the musical flame were long, stretched out marks that looked like something huge had been dragged. Upon the wall near the marks was a sealed door, ornately carved in gold like the rest of the room.  
  
The carvings of the walls were of ancient monsters that were made to look wise and beautiful. The murals seemed to tell a story of how the Earth, and how monsters were created. Vincent thought they were fascinating. He never thought of those creatures as even being intelligent before, let alone have a system, history, and government of some sort.  
  
"Guess I'll have to be huntin' for the remnants of Jenova elsewhere, eh? Dey probably knew we were coming."  
  
  
  
~  
  
  
"I'm sorry, Barret."  
  
"No, I-uh, am glad you told me."  
  
"Your so mature." Tifa coiled the phone cord around her finger nervously.   
  
"I'm glad we had this conversation, Tifa. But, uh, you know, it still hurts."  
  
"I'm sorry, Barret."  
  
"NO! Don't be $%!$%^&@ sorry! 'S like you said, 'just da way things havta be, you know? Oh... well. Marlene still misses ya. When will you be back from Costa del Sol?"  
  
"Uhm. My train leaves in three days. I should be back by Wednesday."  
  
"Oh. Good. Uh, we can still be friends, right? Me, you, and Cloud."  
  
"Oh, sure, Barret, nothing has changed, it's just Cloud and I are going out, now, you know? But, we don't even know if it will work out, so... It's just the beginning. The distance is the problem. I don't think I can keep a long distance relationship. I don't know, we will try to work something out."  
  
"Right, well, uh, you take care now, Tifa. And don't let Cloud screw ya up, or I'll havta lay da smackdown on his $%#^% bony ass, you know?"  
  
Tifa giggled. "I know, Barret, thanks for uhm, looking out for my best interest."  
  
Barret sighed silently, and tapped his head on the window. He paused. He felt as if someone had just shot him in the chest. He tried to mask the pain and despair in his voice.  
  
"You take care, too. Tell Cloud I said to come by sometime."  
  
"Bye, Barret."  
  
"Uh, later... Tifa."  
  
He hung up the phone. He wouldn't let himself cry. Just having her in his life was enough, wasn't it? ... Friends. We are just... friends. And that's all we will ever be. 'I just, uh, sorry, but I don't find myself physically attracted to you.' Cloud. Cloud...! CLOUD?! ... Cloud.  
  
She chooses Cloud. Of course she would. He was older, black, and had a kid. She was young, pretty, and doesn't even know what she wants in life let alone ready to start a family. Cloud.  
  
What bull-shit, Barret thought. Bull-SHIT.   
  
Oh well.  
  
We are friends.  
  
That all we will ever be.  
  
At least she was still in his life.  
  
He... loves her.  
  
He wants her to be happy.  
  
She is happy.  
  
Barret smiled. She is happy.  
  
  
~  
  
"HOLY-sweet-Jesus! Sheila! SHEILA! Take a LOOK at #@%$! This!!"  
"What? What!" Sheila rushed in, rubbing her dishwater hands on a towel.  
  
Cid was standing on his favorite, taped up green chair. His boots sunk into the upholstery and springs.  
  
Sheila bent down and turned up the volume on the television set.  
The blonde news anchorwoman smiled in the TV.  
  
"...Vincent Valentine, Yuffie Kisaragi, Dante Julius, and private investor and self proclaimed treasure hunter, Ray Romeo, were found coming up from the abandoned Shin-Ra building. Ray was bleeding profusely from the head, and president Shin-Ra was looking very disturbed. When asked for comment, president Dante simply muttered something about being left alone in the dark, and having claustrophobia. We asked Mr. Valentine for an interview- because speculatives even doubted his existence. This interview will be seen on our Date-Line TV show at eleven pm conducted by writer, Phoenix Down. When we asked Yuffie for comment about what exactly was going on in this supposed-to-be-torn-down-mansion, she simply made a face at the camera, ladies and gentleman, and ran off. That's all here, live at the site, I am Katy McKormick."  
  
"My goodness! I wonder what THAT was all about!" Sheila tossed the dishrag onto her shoulder and walked into the kitchen.  
  
"I don' know, don' care, really. Did you see the look on that Dante kid's face though!? HAHA! THAT was PRICELESS!" Cid sat down in the green chair properly, and lit a cigarette.   
  
"Bet it was about that monster stuff Vincent was tellin' me about. I can't wait for that interview tonight."  
  
"When is it on again?" Sheila called out from the kitchen as she turned on the faucet.  
  
"Eleven, dear!"  
  
"What do you want for dinner, sweetie?" She yelled back.  
  
"MASHED potatoes!"  
  
"Garlic or no garlic!?"  
  
"NO garlic!"  
  
"Sweetie?"  
  
"Yeah?!" Cid yelled back.  
  
"I think that there is a rat in here!"  
  
"GOD #$@%!$ damnit!"  
  
  
The End  
  
~PD 2002 


End file.
